Tel Aviv----February 26.....A Palestinian terrorist blew himself up at the entrance of a nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade tonight, murdering at least five people and wounding dozens.
The Arab terror suicide bomber, suspected by Israel officials of working with operatives in Syria and Iran, destroyed the fragile Middle East peace agreement put into place by Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

The terror explosion ended several weeks of calm and presented the first serious test to the unofficial cease-fire declared by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on February 8 at a peace summit in Egypt. Israeli officials indicated the terror attack would not derail the tentative peace efforts. But the bombing put new pressure on Abbas to take action against terrorists who are taking orders from Syria and Iran, who have not formally accepted the truce.

The bombing occurred at the Stage, a nightclub located near Tel Aviv's seaside promenade, as about 20 to 30 innocent civialians were waiting to enter the club. The area was especially busy on a mild weekend night.

"Suddenly there was this huge explosion and we just ran," said Merav Ayush, a 20-year-old club goer.
"I saw a boy and a girl sitting on the ground. At the entrance to the club there were about 15 people just lying on the floor," she said. Tel Aviv police chief David Tzur said security guards outside the club spotted the bomber and didn't allow him in. "The impact, if he would have gone inside, would have been tragic," he said. He said four people were murdered and dozens wounded. At least one of the dead was female. Israeli police said about 50 people were wounded, more than 10 of them seriously. Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the blast was exceptionally powerful.

The explosion ripped off the front of the nightclub, shattering windows of nearby restaurants and blackening cars. Dozens of ambulances, fire and rescue workers pored through the scene, and police scoured the balconies of nearby buildings for evidence. Several covered bodies and a pool of blood lay on the ground. A neighborhood shopkeeper, who identified himself only as Shlomo, said the blast was so powerful that it knocked a row of bottles off a shelf onto his head. "Immediately we knew it was an attack. It's a terrible feeling. We saw the people scattered all over," he said. The Tel Aviv promenade has been the target of Palestinian and Arab terrorism in the recent past, including barbaric attacks in 2001 outside the Dolphinarium disco and Mike's Place, a popular pub.

Two of the four victims in the Tel Aviv suicide bombing were identified this evening as Itzik Buzaglo, 40, from the Galilee moshav of Mishmar Hayarden, and Yael Aurbach, 28, from Rehovot. Itzik Buzaglo and his wife Linda had come to the "Stage" nightclub on the Tel Aviv promenade to a surprise birthday party of a friend. Itzik died in the blast at the entrance to the club, while his wife Linda was critically wounded and taken to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, where she is still receiving treatment. Buzaglo is the eldest of seven brothers. He met his wife Linda, 10 years his junior, nine years ago. The couple has two children: a 9-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. The two were building their new home in the moshav.

Israel Freezes Planned Security Handover

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Saturday froze plans to hand over security responsibilities in the West Bank to the Palestinians following a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel's Army Radio reported. Security officials suspended the planned handover during an emergency meeting called in the wake of Friday night's attack, which killed four Israelis outside a nightclub. "With all our desire to move ahead with a process to which we are obligated, we cannot carry on and be indifferent to the murderous activities of the terrorist organizations," Mofaz was quoted as saying. Israel had pledged to withdraw from five West Bank towns within weeks after a Feb. 8 cease-fire declaration and allow Palestinian security forces to take over. The radio report did not say when the freeze would be lifted.

The Palestinians must "do much more to prevent such attacks," said Gideon Ezra, the Israeli public security minister. Despite the violence, he said contacts with the Palestinians should continue. There was no official claim of responsibility. But both Palestinian and Israeli officials and leaders of Islamic terror groups said the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah which is based in Damascus, Syria, had orchestrated the attack. Abbas pledged to track down those responsible, accusing them of trying to derail the peace process. "The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage," Abbas said in a statement after holding an emergency meeting early Saturday with his security chiefs. "We will follow and track down those responsible and they will be punished accordingly." Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli army identified the bomber as Abdullah Badran, 21, a university student.

Israeli security forces arrested five people, the officials said, including two of Badran's brothers and the local imam. Israeli troops also imposed a curfew on the West Bank village of Deir al Ghusun on Saturday, the apparent home of Badran, the Palestinian officials said. The Israel Defense Forces said troops had carried out an arrest raid and that a curfew had temporarily been imposed but gave no further details. Israel this month said it would no longer destroy the homes of suicide bombers — a practice once common - because an army review concluded it didn't deter attacks but did inflame hatred.

The Islamic Jihad terror group claimed responsibility this evening for the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
In a videotape made prior to the attack, the bomber states that the bombing was intended to do harm to the Palestinian Authority, which on February 8 declared a cease-fire with Israel. American officials have called upon Syria to close down Islamic Jihad's Damascus headquarters. The foreign ministry in Damascus replied that "the Syrian government has more than once made clear the informational character of these offices, whose work is limited to expressing their viewpoint," adding that "operations are planned and carried out in the occupied territories . . . not based on instructions issued by the media offices that are found in some Arab capitals." For good measure, the statement accused the United States of being "responsible for the current bloodletting" because of its policies in the Middle East.
In fact, the evidence linking Islamic Jihad operations to its operational headquarters in Damascus is beyond overwhelming.

Israel Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was to convene a meeting of security chiefs later Saturday to discuss an Israeli response, Israel Army Radio reported.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned the terror attack "in the strongest possible terms" and said it is essential that Palestinian leaders take "immediate, credible steps" to find those responsible. Rice took note of the Palestinian condemnation of the attack. "We now must see actions that send a clear message that terror will not be tolerated," she said. Hezbollah has emerged as the biggest threat to the fragile Israeli-Palestinian truce, offering West Bank gunmen thousands of dollars to attack Israelis.

Hezbollah, which is directly backed by Iran and Syria, has hundreds of West Bank terrorists on its payroll, according to Palestinian security officials. Syria, which supported and protected Iraqi terrorists during the Gulf War, has been charged with the recent assasination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Anger over the assassination spilled over last week, with another group throwing stones and setting fires outside a Syrian government office in Beirut. Western intelligence agencies have accused Damascus of being behind last Monday's bombing, which killed at least 17 people, including Hariri and seven of his body guards. About 120 others were wounded.

Syrian President Bashar Assad decried the bombing as "a horrible criminal act," but his condemnation was too little for opposition leaders in Lebanon. They hold both the Syrian and its allied Lebanese government responsible. The United States recalled its ambassador to Syria on Tuesday over the assassination of Hariri. Officials say Ambassador Margaret Scobey is returning to the U.S. for "consultations." The Bush administration has condemned the attack as a "terrible reminder" of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and insists Syria comply with a United Nations resolution calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the largest of the Palestinian terrorist groups, all denied involvement, saying they were respecting the recent calm. "If it turns out that indeed an individual from the brigades carried out this attack, everyone must know that they acted alone, and that the Aqsa Brigades does not identify with him and does not recognize him as a member," said Abu Mahmoud, the group's official spokesman. However, a senior Al Aqsa commander said one of its members had been recruited by Hezbollah to carry out the attack. The commander spoke on condition of anonymity.

A senior Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the bomber was hired by Hezbollah. Palestinian officials said they had been tracking communications between Hezbollah and Al Aqsa terrorists in the northern West Bank in recent days. Al Aqsa, which is loosely linked to Abbas' Fatah party, has largely honored Abbas' efforts to maintain the cease-fire. But rogue elements of the terror group are widely believed by Israel and Palestinian officials of receiving orders and funding from Hezbollah. In Beirut, a Hezbollah official declined involvement. "As far as we are concerned, there is no need to respond to such lies," the official said.

Since this month's Mideast summit, the two sides have stepped up security cooperation, and Israel has pledged to hand over security responsibilities in most of the West Bank to Palestinian forces. The two largest and most powerful Palestinian Arab terror organizations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have so far refused to join a cease-fire officially but have pledged to maintain the fragile calm. The Islam Palestinian factions are expected to hold talks with Egyptian officials next week on the cease-fire with Israel, a senior Hamas official said on condition of anonymity.

While Israel has welcomed Abbas' efforts, the Jewish nation wants the Palestinian leader to begin to take immediate and concrete steps to dismantle the Islamic terror groups - a step he was reluctant to take.

But Palestinian forces, under pressure for tough action after last night's suicide bombing, arrested at least three Palestinians today but suggested Lebanon's Hizbollah group was behind the attack. Israel said the bombing showed Abbas was wrong if he thought he could coax terrorists into a formal ceasefire from their current de facto truce and demanded vigorous action. However, officials said that Israel would show restraint for now. "We will not tolerate this act," Abbas told reporters as he met security chiefs to talks strategy. "We will not allow anyone to sabotage the goals and ambitions of our people ... We will bring them to justice." Abbas blamed an unnamed "third party" for involvement in the attack. A senior Palestinian security official involved in the investigation said inquiries indicated Hizbollah's hand. "All the information that we have until now from interrogations shows that Hizbollah is involved in the operation," the official said. In Beirut, Hizbollah denied any role and called the accusations a provocation by "the Zionist entity" (Israel).

Both Israel and the Palestinians have recently accused the Iranian-backed group of trying to sabotage peace efforts, though political commentators say the Palestinians could benefit from shifting the blame away from home. A cell of the terrorist Islamic Jihad group in the West Bank claimed the attack, but the faction's leadership in the Gaza Strip, fearing the Israel Defense Forces and US support for any Israeli action, denied any knowledge and said it would continue to maintain calm. Other mainstream groups also denied any role. Security officials gave the names of three men arrested at the presumed bomber's village of Deir al-Ghoson - the first suspected terrorists held since Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat, the late president, in January. Israeli troops arrested five others in a raid on the West Bank village, including two brothers of the suspected bomber.

It was the first suicide bombing since the cease-fire declaration, as well as the first such terror attack since the death of longtime Palestinian leader and master terrorist Yasser Arafat on Nov. 11.

The last suicide bombing occurred on November 1, when three people were murdered in a Tel Aviv market by Arab terrorists.

Israeli Cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Abbas must move quickly. "This time, words are not enough. He has to combat terrorism," Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, told Israel Army Radio.

With AP

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY