Two die in Israeli suicide bombing

A suicide bomber killed himself and a bystander in an Israeli shopping mall tonight.

Eleven people, including two children, were injured, police and medics said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a spokesman of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said that “the Palestinian people will not stop their resistance until the defeat of the Israeli occupation.”

The bomber blew himself up just after 6:15 pm (16.15pm Irish time) in Kfar Saba, a town just across the border from the West Bank Palestinian town of Qalqilyia.

One of the injured was in serious condition but the two children were lightly injured, paramedics said.

David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office, said the attack was “proof that Palestinian terror knows no limits, specialises in cruelty and specifically targets the innocent.”

Palestinian militants have frequently targeted the area – not far from Tel Aviv – during the past two years of Mideast violence.

In an attack in April, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a pizzeria in Kfar Saba, killing one Israeli.