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Hamas Claims Responsibility for Tel Aviv Bomb Attack
GAZA, June 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The armed wing of the Palestinian occupation resistance group Hamas claimed responsibility Sunday for Friday's bomb attack in Tel Aviv, which left 20 Israelis dead and dozens others injured.
An IslamOnline's reporter in the Palestinian territories said Ezzeldin Al-Qassam Brigade revealed the identity of the martyr, who detonated himself as he stood in a line of Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub.
Using loudspeakers, the Brigade identified the bomber as 22-year-old Said Hutari of the city of Qalqilya in the West Bank.
The announcement was made during a funeral for two Palestinians who were shot dead by Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The death toll from Friday's attack rose Sunday to 20 after one of the wounded died in the hospital, news agencies reported. More than 100 others were wounded in the explosion.
Meanwhile, tension remained high in the Palestinian occupied territories Sunday, as Palestinians and Israelis pondered their next moves.
For the second time in two days, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a meeting of his inner security cabinet -- comprising Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres -- to discuss Israel's possible response to the bomb attack.
"What is important is not Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's declaration but what happens on the ground, and in one or two days we will know," Israeli minister without portfolio Danny Naveh told Israel's public television.
Naveh was referring to a written document issued by Arafat Saturday in which he ordered security services, for the first time since the beginning of the Intifada (uprising) against the Israeli occupation, to implement a "total and immediate cease-fire" on Israeli targets.
The Palestinian coalition of Nationalist Forces, a loose grouping of several Palestinian occupation resistance factions, announced Sunday that they will continue the Intifada against Arafat's warnings.
The coalition, which groups 13 factions, including Arafat's Fatah faction, Hamas and Jihad Palestinian resistance movements, stressed in a joint statement "the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves against aggression, occupation and colonization and continue the Intifada, one of their legitimate rights."
They called on the Palestinians to "continue popular demonstrations to underline the continuation of the Intifada", which started nine months ago in retaliation for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's transgression on the holy Muslim Aqsa mosque.
Ahead of the meeting the BBC online service quoted a senior official of Arafat's Fatah faction, Marwan Barghouthi as saying, "the Intifada and resistance will continue as long as one Jewish settler and one Israeli soldier remains on our occupied land."
Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Meshaal warned, "No initiative can stop the Intifada," Kuwait's official news agency reported Sunday. Only an end to occupation could halt such attacks, added Meshaal who is attending a conference in Kuwait.
The Hamas official, a Jordanian national who was deported to Qatar in November 1999, made no specific mention of an unconditional cease-fire ordered by the Palestinian President.
Meanwhile, Israeli excessive use of force against Palestinians continued Sunday. In the Gaza strip, Israeli F-16 warplanes flew over hoems and refugee camps. Witnesses said they saw the planes flying low over Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip as well as Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.
Israel used F-16 fighter jets in raids on civilian areas in the West Bank last month, killing at least 12 Palestinians.
The Israeli army announced Saturday that it had imposed a blockade on all Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, barring all Palestinians from entering or leaving the autonomous zones.
According to Western figures, at least 560 Palestinians and 109 Israelis have been killed since the uprising erupted after Sharon's provocative visit to Islam's third holiest site Al Aqsa Mosque.
With Additional Reporting by Mohammed Saleh
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