A bomb ripped through an Israeli bus near the military headquarters in Tel Aviv today, wounding 23 people, Israeli officials said.
The blast came amid a weeklong Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza that has killed more than 130 Palestinians. Militant rocket fire into Israel has killed five Israelis.
The bus exploded before noon on one of the coastal city's busiest streets, near the Tel Aviv museum and across from an entrance to the Kirya, Israel's national defence headquarters.
The bus was charred and blackened, its side windows blown out and its glass scattered on the asphalt.
Yonatan Yagodovsky, manager of the Israeli Ambulance Services and one of the first responders at the scene told told CBC News that 16 or 17 people were hurt, including a few on the street.
Later, police spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoram Ohayon put the injury count at 23. He said a 14-year-old boy who was sitting closest to the bomb sustained the most serious injuries.
Somebody threw the bomb onto the bus and detonated it from a distance, police spokesman Ohayon said. He denied reports that a suspect has been arrested and said a number of people were seen running from the scene after the blast.
Among the wounded, three people were moderately to seriously hurt, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the bombing a "natural response to the Israel massacres ... in Gaza," but stopped short of saying Hamas was responsible for the attack.
"There has been a major clampdown in Tel Aviv. A major complex with a lot of offices and stores has been shut down entirely in an area that contains Israel's tallest buildings," CBC's Nahlah Ayed said.
The attack is a reminder of past Palestinian uprisings, with deadly bomb attacks in the heart of Israel's main cities that made no bus, restaurant or nightclub safe for civilians.
The last time there was a bomb blast in Tel Aviv was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people and wounded 70 others at a shawarma stand near the old central bus station.
Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and the militant group secured its hold on Gaza the following year as it beat back an attempted coup by Fatah gunmen, at the same time launching attack rocket attacks upon Israel before agreeing to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in 2008.
Rumours attack planned in West Bank
Ayed said there are rumours the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, based in the West Bank, may be responsible for Wednesday's bus explosion.
"The attack may have been organized out of the West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory," reported CBC's Sasa Petricic.
"There is a lot of sympathy there and it has not been ruled out that it could be somebody from the West Bank who organized this and carried it out. It's also much easier for someone from the West Bank to enter Israel itself.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. (Alaa Badarneh/Associated Press) "Gazans, generally speaking, have a very tough time; it's almost impossible for them to go to Israel," Petricic said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trying to wring an elusive truce deal from Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers after earlier efforts to end more than a week of fighting broke down amid a furious spasm of violence.
Clinton said the U.S. "strongly condemns" the bus bombing, calling it a "terrorist attack." She has joined other world diplomats in shuttling between Jerusalem, the West Bank and Cairo, trying to piece together a deal that would satisfy the two foes.
After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Tuesday night, Clinton conferred with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Wednesday morning and then travelled to Cairo, which is mediating in the crisis.
The two sides had seemed on the brink of a deal following a swirl of diplomatic activity also involving the UN chief and Egypt's president. But sticking points could not be resolved as talks — and violence — stretched into the night.
Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza with at least 30 strikes overnight, hitting government ministries, smuggling tunnels, a banker's empty villa and a Hamas-linked media office.
At least four strikes within seconds of each other pulverized a complex of government ministries the size of a city block, rattling nearby buildings and shattering surrounding windows. Hours later, clouds of acrid dust still hung over the area and smoke still rose from the rubble.
The impact of the blast demolished the nearby office of lawyer Salem Dahdouh, who was searching through files buried in the debris.
In downtown Gaza City, another strike levelled the empty, two-storey home of a well-known banker and buried a police car parked nearby in rubble.
Medics said a child living in the area was killed, raising the Palestinian death toll to at least 138. Five Israelis have also been killed by Palestinian rocket fire, which continued early Wednesday.
The Israeli military said its targets included the Ministry of Internal Security, which it says served as one of Hamas's main command and control centres, a military hideout used as a senior operatives' meeting place and a communications centre.
Washington blames Hamas rocket fire for the outbreak of violence and has backed Israel's right to defend itself, but has cautioned that an Israeli ground invasion could send casualties soaring.
"In the days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region toward an outcome that bolsters security for the people of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region," she said Tuesday night in Jerusalem, speaking alongside Netanyahu.
While Abbas does not have any practical influence in Gaza, his West Bank government would be instrumental in implementing any new arrangements on the Gaza border that would be part of a ceasefire pact. Israel and Egypt slammed shut the border after the militant group seized the territory from Abbas in June 2007, hoping to disrupt Hamas rule. Both sides have since eased the restrictions, but many remain.
The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials.
Hamas official Izzat Risheq predicted a truce deal would be reached Wednesday, but the movement wouldn't discuss what the problems were.
Israeli media quoted Defence Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce among its forces and other Gaza militant groups.
Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations said Hamas wanted assurances of a comprehensive deal that included new arrangements for prying open Gaza's heavily restricted borders — and were resisting Israeli proposals for a phased agreement.
Offensive follows months of rocket salvoes
Israel launched the offensive on Nov. 14 following months of rocket salvoes from the territory into southern Israel, which has endured attacks for the past 13 years.
For its opening salvo, it assassinated Hamas's military chief, then followed up by bombarding the militant-run territory to its south with more than 1,500 airstrikes that initially targeted rocket launchers and weapons storage sites, then widened to include wanted militants and symbols of Hamas power.
Defying Israel's claims that they've been badly battered, the militants have so far fired more than 1,400 rockets at Israel, drawing upon newly developed and smuggled weapons to extend the reach of their attacks toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel's largest cities. The number of Israelis within rocket range leapt to 3.5 million from one million.
In a meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
"Further escalation benefits no one," he said before returning to Egypt, which is mediating the truce talks.
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