January 21, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 20, 1426

JERUSALEM, Jan 20: Israel blamed Iran and Syria on Friday for a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that has escalated tension just days before a legislative election in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Nineteen Israelis were wounded when a Palestinian university student blew himself up at a food stand in a down-and-out area of the city on Thursday, the first such attack since a Palestinian truce ended this month.

At a security meeting, Israel’s Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz pointed the finger of blame at Tehran and Damascus.

“The attack was financed by Tehran, planned in Syria and carried out by Palestinians,” Mr Mofaz was quoted as saying by a ministry official.

The 22-year-old bomber from the West Bank town of Nablus blew himself up in the name of Islamic Jihad, whose leadership, like its larger and more powerful rival Hamas, is based in the Syrian capital.

Mr Mofaz said Israel had ‘decisive proof... Iran supplied the money and Jihad’s headquarters in Damascus directed the organization’s operatives in Nablus’ in quotes printed in the Haaretz daily and confirmed by the ministry.

On Thursday, the same day as the Tel Aviv bombing, Mr Ahmadinejad met Syrian President Bashar al Assad, in what Mr Mofaz called a ‘terror summit’.—AFP