Palestinian People's front claims responsibility for Tel Aviv operation: Four Israelis killed, scores injured
Abu Ali Mustafa groups, the military wing of the People's Front For The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the Palestinian Tel Aviv operation which resulted in killing four Israelis and injuring more than 40.
A spokesman for the group said that the executor of the operation is one of its cadres and is called Amer al-Faar ( 18 year old) from Askar camp in Nablus. The spokesman explained that the group will circulate a statement to this effect to the mass media later.
The Palestinian national authority condemned the operation. The minister for negotiations affairs Saeb Oreikat said that the Palestinian authority denounces all operations which target "civilians, Palestinians or Israelis." The minister explained that the recent attack underlines the need of returning back to the table of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis because they are the only way to end the "cycle of violence."
In the first Israeli reaction to the operation, the spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry renewed the demands of the Palestinian authority to fight what he called terrorism. For his part, the Israeli defense minister said that the army studies the reaction to the attack. He said in a statement to the Israeli radio that military instructions were given to intensify operations which target attacking the infrastructure of what he called the Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The Palestinian operation took place in al-Karmel shopping central market in the downtown of Tel Aviv. News reports said that one Palestinian entered one of the shops in the market which was crowded by shoppers before noon yesterday and detonated himself.
Israeli medical sources expected the number of casualties to increase as two of the injured are in a hopeless case and other five in a very critical situation.
Following the explosion, the Israeli police blocked openings leading to the market of fears that other explosives are implanted in the area and in search of persons suspected to have links in the operation.