Suicide bomb death toll rises to 15

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes apart today in a central Tel Aviv area crowded with foreign workers, killing at least 15 bystanders and wounding nearly 40 in the first such attack since November.

Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group, claimed responsibility for the twin bombings near Tel Aviv’s former central bus station. The claim came in a phone call to the Lebanese TV station Al Manar.

There was no immediate comment by the Palestinian Authority.

The latest blasts went off at about 6:30pm in an area where many foreign workers live. One of the explosions went off near a fastfood restaurant called “McChina,” TV reports said.

Yitzhak Teva, a local barber, who was slightly injured, said he was busy cutting hair when the blast went off. ”Half the wall fell on me and I was covered in broken glass,” Teva said. “ I shut the shop and then there was the next explosion.”

A bystander who only gave his first name, Tomer, told TV’s Channel Two that he ran to help the wounded.

“I saw a man without a leg. I saw horrible things, people without legs, without arms. I saw fingers,” he said.

TV reports said the evacuation of the wounded was hampered by traffic jams in the narrow alleys near the site of the explosion. Ambulances waited in line to get out of the area, and wounded were brought to the waiting vehicles by residents, the reports said. Bystanders were helping to remove the wounded from the scene with improvised means, using doors torn from their hinges as makeshift stretchers.

Police said at least 15 bystanders and the two bombers were killed. TV stations read police announcements in English, assuring foreign workers staying in Israel illegally that they would not be deported if they sought treatment or searched for friends and relatives in hospital.

The area of the old bus station was the scene of a bombing in August. It was the first bombing in an Israeli city since November, when a suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing himself and 11 passengers.