JERUSALEM – A new day of terror dawned on Israel today, with a Palestinian blitz that killed at least five people and injured scores of others.
One Israeli was killed on a bus today in a suicide bomb attack in the northern town of Afula.
The bus, headed from Nazareth to Jerusalem, as pulling into the Afula depot when the suicide bomber set off his explosive. Ten people were reported wounded.
At about the same time, an Israeli woman was shot dead in her car on a road south of Jerusalem.
Earlier in the day, a rifle-toting Palestinian suicide attacker opened fire on a packed nightclub and a steakhouse in the heart of Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and injuring 31 in a five-minute revenge rampage.
After he ran out of bullets, the masked terrorist tossed a hand grenade, slashed passers-by with a knife and was prepared to detonate an explosives belt before being shot dead by a courageous shoe salesman and police, authorities said.
“We were dancing, and all of a sudden, we heard gunshots,” said one witness who was in the all-night restaurant and disco Seafood Market when the violence erupted at 2:30 a.m. “Then we all hid under the tables.”
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia with ties to Palestinian chief Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, quickly took credit for the carnage.
It identified the shooter as Ibrahim Mohammed Hassouna, from the Jebalya refugee camp near Gaza City.
“This attack is in retaliation for the massacre of the women and children in Ramallah and the massacres in Jenin,” the group said, referring to recent deadly incursions by the Israeli Army in the West Bank.
Al-Aqsa has also taken credit for three weekend attacks – including a horrific suicide bombing in Jerusalem – that left 21 people dead and brought fierce retaliation from the Israeli military.
Israel said the latest shooting will not change its policy on reprisals.
“The campaign of terror against Israel continues literally day and night, and Israel will use any means necessary and stop it,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Today’s first attack unfolded in a commercial quarter of Tel Aviv popular with late-night diners.
After emptying his rifle, the killer pulled out a knife and attacked people on the street – stopping only when pistol-packing disco patron William Hazan, a shoe dealer, ran outside and shot him.
Police said they also fired on Hassouna, who was wearing a bomb belt.
Also today, eight Israeli-Arab schoolkids were slightly hurt in an explosion in a playground. It was not clear what caused the blast but there was speculation it was set off by a Jewish vigilante group.