Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the army today to carry out strikes targeting top Islamic Jihad militants after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five people in a coastal town, security sources said.
The sources said Mr Mofaz had ordered raids, assassinations and tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement in the occupied West Bank.
Avi Sasson, deputy police chief
A Palestinian suicide bomber killed five and wounded at least 40 people
outside a shopping mall in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, in the first attack of its kind in six weeks.
The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing and released a video showing the purported bomber wielding an assault rifle and rocket-propelled grenade launcher against the backdrop of the movement's black flag.
The attack dealt another blow to a shaky nine-month-old ceasefire and further dented peace hopes stirred by Israel's Gaza pullout in September.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cancelled political meetings and consulted security chiefs on a military response to the attack, the second inside the Jewish state since Israel's Gaza withdrawal.
Scrambling to keep the truce from falling apart, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the bombing as a "terrorist attack". His office said he had "issued firm instructions to arrest those involved and those responsible ... and put them on trial".
In today's bombing, a 21-year-old Palestinian was challenged by police when he tried to enter the mall. "Two policemen at the scene pulled out their guns and ordered him to halt and to take his hands out of his pockets. At that stage, he blew himself up," said Avi Sasson, deputy police chief in the area.
The bombing could complicate the run-up to Israeli and Palestinian elections in coming months. Mr Abbas's office issued a statement saying: "This terrorist attack against civilians greatly harms our commitment to the peace process."