A suicide bomber has detonated a bomb in central Jerusalem causing several casualties.
"There was an explosion in the centre and as a result of it the suicide bomber died in the place. There are four others injured, lightly to moderately," Jerusalem police chief Mr Micky Levy told Israel public television.
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The explosion occurred in an area of central Jerusalem close to the boundary with occupied east Jerusalem, in front of a falafel stand near the Russian Compound, the site of several bars and a prison.
Public television said most of the injured suffered shrapnel wounds in the blast, the first in Jerusalem since attacks on June 18th and 19th that left a total of 25 Israelis dead.
Israelis had been bracing for new suicide attacks with Palestinian militants vowing to avenge a July 22nd air strike in Gaza City that killed 14 people, including nine children, in addition to a targeted top militant.
But until today's bombing, the reprisals had involved attacks on Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
The bomb went off about 400 metres from the prison housing Israel's most prominent prisoner, Marwan Barghuti, the West Bank secretary general of Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement facing trial on terrorism charges.
Although the authorities were on the alert for suicide attacks, Mr Levy told Israeli television it was virtually impossible to stop all would-be bombers from reaching civilian targets.
"There is a population of 180,000 Palestinians in east Jerusalem who are trying to live their lives peacefully," he said. "When there is a population like that it is much easier for a crazy suicide bomber to get through and reach a heavily populated (Israeli) area.
"Together with the security services we are trying to do everything we can to protect the population."
Mr David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, condemned the bombing.
"Palestinian terror is aiming to instill a perpetual state of fear in Israelis," he said. "This attack is proof that the Palestinian Authority continues to believe that terror will further its goals and this is mistaken."
AFP