Explosion rocks Tel Aviv restaurant

At least three people were killed and 35 injured today when a suicide bomber triggered a huge explosion which wrecked a Tel Aviv restaurant.

At least three people were killed and 35 injured today when suicide bomber triggered a huge explosion which wrecked a Tel Aviv restaurant.

“A suicide bomber blew himself up at Mike’s Place restaurant on the seafront walkway,” said Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon.

“The attacker did not succeed in getting into the restaurant.”

Ambulances raced to the scene, and witnesses saw casualties being taken away.

Police and rescue services said at least 35 people were hurt and two were killed, including the bomber.

Another died a few minutes later in a hospital.

The bomb blew the front off the restaurant, and wrecked furniture inside.

The owner of the restaurant, Gal Ganzman, his shirt covered with blood, said he was standing behind the bar when he heard the explosion.

“I’m alive, I’m fine,” he said. “One of the waitresses lost an arm but she’s still alive. The boom was just outside the entrance. The security guard must have stopped him.”

An eyewitness identified only by his first name, Gil, told Army Radio that the guard at the restaurant prevented the bomber from entering.

In a similar attack on April 24, a security guard at a train station north of Tel Aviv stopped a bomber and was killed when the attacker set off his explosives.

The restaurant shattered in today’s attack is on Herbert Samuel street on the walkway along the Tel Aviv beach that leads from the southern edge of the city several miles north.

The US Embassy is nearby, but was not damaged in the blast and was apparently not a target.

Mike’s Place is a well-known Tel Aviv night spot that features live music.

The bomb went off just after 1am local time, when seafront restaurants and night-spots are often full of people.

Ambulances raced to the scene and police moved to close off the area.

The blast came hours after the Palestinian parliament approved the Cabinet presented by Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Before the vote, Abbas spoke out against terrorism and indicated that his government would crack down on militant groups.

But the violent Islamic Hamas pledged to continue its attacks on Israel.

David Baker, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, said that the attack was evidence that “Palestinian terrorism has not been reined in”.

He said that the “new Palestinian government must seize this opportunity to stop these terror attacks, and it must be done now”.