after at least 7 people died and 40 were injured in a major suicide attack at a cafe in the German district of Jerusalem, media said.
The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s Jerusalem blast and another bombing several hours earlier at a military base outside Tel Aviv, which killed up to 8 people and wounded over 30, the Al Jazeera television network said.
As sirens of rescue services were heard throughout Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reportedly considering to cut short his trip to India and work out further plans to combat militants.
The latest attacks came after Hamas pledged "unprecedented revenge" for Israel’s military attack Saturday, September 6, against its founder, the 67- year old wheel-chair bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. A Hamas statement reportedly praised the two attacks, saying it was "payback time".
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the political leader of the militant group had earlier told reporters about the military base blast that "whoever is responsible, this attack" was part of a response for "the assassination attempts and to the incursions," by Israel.
Television footage showed a scene of devastation around the Hillel Cafe on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street Tuesday night. Police, ambulances and medics were in attendance and worried onlookers were crowding the scene, searching for news of the wounded.
A bodyguard had desperately tried, but than apparently failed, to prevent the bomber of detonating his explosives while entering the cafe, German television reported. "I have a store next to the cafe. I arrived just a few moments after the blast. I saw things that just can’t be described, there are no words," the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted one unidentified eye-witness as saying.
FIERY EXPLOSION
"It was a fiery explosion, a great boom. I couldn’t hear for a while and I saw people fleeing in all directions," Gideon Cohen who was working in a nearby restaurant, told the BBC. "I saw several bodies on the ground. There was panic. It was crazy. The tables were overturned. There was glass everywhere."
David Baker, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said in a reaction that Tuesday’s violence had shown that the Palestinian Authority is "doing absolutely nothing" to rein in terrorists or "dismantle the terror infrastructure in their areas."
"Israel has consistently warned that the Palestinian failure to dismantle the vast infrastructure of terrorism in their area of jurisdiction will inevitably lead to attacks of this sort," the BBC quoted another spokesman, Dore Gold as saying.
ISRAEL WARNS
Speaking from India as part of the delegation that accompanies Sharon, he also warned that "now Israel will do what is necessary." Earlier in the day Israeli forces already raided a building in the West Bank town of Hebron in an apparent search for militants.
Three Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed when Israeli forces surrounded and later blew up the building, the BBC said.
