Suicide bombers kill three in Tel Aviv attack

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Tel Aviv, killing three bystanders, including two foreign workers, and injuring more than 40, police and witnesses said.

Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon said the two bombers blew themselves up 15 to 20 yards from each other.

The attack took place in Neve Shaanan street in the southern part of the downtown area, near the city’s old central bus station, yesterday. Ambulances and police raced to the scene and closed off the area.

The area is crowded with small shops and stalls. Many foreign workers live in the rundown neighbourhood. Rescue workers said many of the casualties were foreign workers. The bomb went off at the entrance to the Central Theatre, near a kiosk where workers gather to socialise. The theatre was closed.

Karen Timbo, 21, a worker from Johannesburg, South Africa, said the explosions woke her up. She said she was puzzled by the attack. ‘‘We are not doing any harm,’’ she said. ‘‘I don’t know they should kill them. we just come here to work.’’ Previous Palestinian bombing attacks have targeted Israeli civilians.

Dutu Raduian, a worker from Romania, said he heard an explosion, and the lights in his nearby flat went out.

‘‘Moments later we heard the second explosion. ‘‘I went down to the street,’’ he said. ‘‘It was horrible, dead people were everywhere and the injured were screaming. I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.’’ Shaken, he said he would take his family back to Romania.

About 300,000 foreigners work in Israel, replacing to a large extent the Palestinian labourers who have been barred from entering since the outbreak of fighting.

With Israel’s economy in a slump, employers welcome the cheap migrant workers, most of whom are in the country illegally and are willing to work long hours for less than the minimum wage.

The Al-Manar TV station in Lebanon said that the Islamic Jihad group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement, the Palestinian Authority denounced the bombing attack as it ‘‘condemns operations targeting civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis’’. The statement said such attacks are ‘‘dangerous to the Palestinian national interest’’ but said Israel was responsible for ‘‘creating by this the suitable atmosphere for such operations which we condemn and reject’’.

As a result of the bombing, Israeli defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ordered a freeze on measures to ease conditions for Palestinians, a statement from his office said. Israeli troops moved into seven of the eight main West Bank cities and towns and imposed curfews after two suicide bombings in Jerusalem.

Earlier yesterday, an Israeli warplane bombed a metal workshop in the Gaza Strip, while in the West Bank, Israeli forces swept through Palestinian areas, arresting a senior Hamas militant and killing three Palestinians.

In the Amari refugee camp next to Ramallah in the West Bank, two Palestinian boys, aged six and 14, were killed in an explosion. Palestinian security officials said they picked up an explosive and it went off.

Near Qalqiliya, Israeli soldiers spotted two Palestinians trying to infiltrate into Israel. They shot dead one of the Palestinians and started searching for the other, Israeli military sources said.

The renewed violence came as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was considering appointing a prime minister to take over daily affairs, a Palestinian Cabinet minister said, a way of responding to Israeli and US demands that Arafat be replaced.

In a manhunt for Palestinians who ambushed a bus near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel a day before and killed eight people, including two babies, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman in an exchange of fire in which an Israeli army officer was killed and three soldiers wounded. The search was still in progress last night.

In Ramallah, Israeli forces arrested the overall commander of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Natsheh, Israeli media reported. Palestinian security and the Israeli military refused to comment.