The armed wings of the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed on Monday that there was a “suicide bombing Sunday night in Tel Aviv” and threatened to carry out other attacks in Israel.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas that has been waging war against Israel in the Gaza Strip for more than 10 months, and the al-Quds Brigades, their Islamic Jihad counterpart, said that “suicide bombings in the occupied interior territories [Israel] will return to the spotlight as long as mass killings, forced displacement of civilians and the occupier’s killing policies continue [israelita]”.
Israel has declared a state of alert after the blast, which also left one person injured. Although it was initially thought to have no connection to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, security services have confirmed in recent hours that it was an attempted “terrorist” attack.