Four people were killed Thursday evening and some 15 others were wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus station in Petah Tikva city, east of Tel Aviv.
Minutes after the bombing, the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it came in retaliation for the killing of two of its members last week.
"This is the first operation in a series of retaliations. We swear to make an earthquake in the Zionist entity," the PFLP statement said.
The Israeli army imposed a full closure on the occupied territories following the attack.
Police were chasing two people seen fleeing the bomb site, and issued a high security alert in the area.
According to reports, three of the dead Israelis were women.
Palestinian sources have identified the suicide bomber as Shahed Hanani, 18, from the West Bank village of Beit Furiq, located near Nablus. Shahed was a relative of Fadi Hanani, a senior PFLP official who was killed by Israeli troops several days ago in the Balata refugee camp. (Albawaba.com)
