gelatik
10.03.02, 00:41
At least 10 people are reported dead and more than 40 injured in an explosion
in a busy cafe in West Jerusalem.
The blast was said to have occurred in the Moment cafe, a few hundred metres
from the offices of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The BBC's James Reynolds, reporting from the scene, said he had seen people
being stretchered away in ambulances.
Israeli media said the incident was a suspected suicide attack.
The cafe was severely damaged in the explosion, and police have blocked nearby
streets to carry out rescue work.
A witness told Israeli TV: "A man walked in and blew himself up. There are
pieces of him all over.
"The police are distancing people from the scene. It's the most horrible thing
I've ever seen."
Dozens of Israelis have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers in a year
and a half of escalating violence.
Palestinian militants have frequently targeted busy urban areas on Saturday
evening, the end of the Jewish Sabbath.
Our correspondent says Israel usually follows such attacks with military action
against Palestinian targets.
Earlier, suspected Palestinian gunmen opened fire on passers-by in the northern
Israeli town of Netanya on Saturday evening, killing one woman and wounding at
least 35 people.
Police killed three of the gunmen after the 15-minute attack during which they
targeted cars and pedestrians in a hotel district but a fourth may have
escaped.
A Palestinian group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, is reported to have said it
carried out both attacks.
The militant group Hamas has also claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem
blast.
Israeli police said that reports of a blast in the coastal town of Ashdod,
north of the Gaza Strip, had proved to be a false alarm.
