Paramedics transport man wounded in Tel Aviv suicide bombing

A suicide bomber in Tel Aviv has wounded at least 14 Israelis. Several are in serious condition.

The man set off explosives strapped to his body in a pedestrian area crowded with shoppers near Tel Aviv's old central bus station. The only fatality was the bomber. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the attack followed vows from the Palestinian militant group Hamas to avenge members slain by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian Authority reacted to the Tel Aviv bombing, saying it condemns any attack that harms Israeli civilians. It also condemned Israel's killing of three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip overnight. An Israeli helicopter strike in southern Gaza late Thursday killed a military commander of Hamas. Israel says the man was responsible for dozens of attacks against its citizens. Several thousand Palestinians took part in his funeral Friday, vowing revenge.

After the air strike, an Israeli tank killed two armed Palestinians, also said to be Hamas members, who the Israeli army said were trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement.

Israel accuses Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of doing little to stop such attacks and has confined him to his headquarters in Ramallah since early last month. Israeli forces withdrew from another part of Ramallah Friday after moving into the area last week following an attack by a Palestinian militant who killed six Israelis at a celebration in Hadera. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces entered the Palestinian village of Taluza overnight and arrested two suspected Hamas activists.

Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.

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