Israel mulls suicide bomb response

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- The Israeli Cabinet is to consider whether to end a ceasefire after a suicide bomber killed 18 people in Tel Aviv.

The bomb exploded in front of a crowded disco late Friday, inflicting the highest death toll of any single incident since the violence resumed in the region eight months ago, Israeli police said.

At least 115 others were injured -- 10 of them seriously, 22 moderately and 54 lightly, according to hospital sources.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting with his defence and foreign ministers on Saturday morning, and the full 10-member security Cabinet was due to convene later in the day.

Sharon had been scheduled to leave soon for Europe but that trip could be postponed in light of the attack.

Sharon spokesman Ranaan Gissin told CNN that despite Friday's attack, Israel remains "committed to the ceasefire ... committed to peace."

But he said: "You can rest assured that those who perpetrated the act, and the Palestinian Authority, which is fully responsible for this act, will pay the full price.

"We'll decide on the time and place, and the method, to bring about an end to this cycle of hostilities."

Israeli army officials told CNN the army had ordered an immediate closure of the West Bank and Gaza, and had requested that all Palestinian workers with permits to work inside Israel return home immediately.

Israeli television reported that the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing.

"We condemn these attacks against civilians and call on all to practice restraint, stop escalation, end the military siege, end all forms of violence and go back to the negotiating table with emphasis on the basis of the Egyptian-Jordanian proposal and the Mitchell Report," a statement from his office said.

"We call for a stop of all kinds of violence against civilians for our children's and their children's sake."

Leading Israeli analyst Chemi Shalev told CNN's Jerrold Kessel the Israeli government "will have no choice but to respond with force."

"The response will be stronger, basically different, than what we have seen before."

Shalev said it was a possibility that Israel could even enter Palestinian territory.

He said it was unlikely that Sharon could continue with the ceasefire: "With this terrorist attack, we've crossed a sort of Rubicon."

Kessel said forensic experts were scouring the scene of bomb as Israelis stood by, arguing about how Israel should respond.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer visited the site on Saturday on his way to the West Bank for a meeting with Arafat.

"This terrible situation must be changed. The road to peace has to be opened and therefore the terror must be stopped immediately," he told Reuters.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization's representative to the United States, Hassan Abdel Rahman, told CNN: "We regret the loss of civilian life, both Israeli and Palestinian, but this attack happened in Tel Aviv, and Tel Aviv is under Israeli security control and not Palestinian.

"The Palestinian Authority cannot be held responsible for the actions of one man," he continued.

"We hope that the loss of these civilians in Tel Aviv does not lead to the loss of Palestinian civilian lives in Gaza or Ramallah."

Many other top Palestinian officials were in Jerusalem for the funeral of Faisal Husseini, 60, a moderate Palestinian who died on Thursday of a heart attack while on a visit to Kuwait.

U.S. President George W. Bush strongly condemned the "heinous" attack against "innocent civilians."

"This illustrates the urgent need for an immediate, unconditional cessation of violence. I call upon Chairman Arafat to condemn this act and to call for an immediate ceasefire," the president said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the attack was a "horrible act that ended many innocent lives for no conceivable earthly purpose. This act of terrorism deserves the entire world's strongest condemnation."

In a statement, he called on Arafat to condemn "this senseless act, declare an immediate and total ceasefire, and take every action necessary to bring those responsible to justice."

Radio reports said the bombing took place around 11:30 p.m. local time at the Dolphinarium Beach, near Tel Aviv's hotel district.

The reports said the suicide bomber apparently got into a line of people waiting to get into a discotheque on the beach.

The area was crowded at the beginning of the weekend, as young people stayed out late in the warm temperatures.

The suicide bombing is one of many in recent weeks. On Sunday a car bomb exploded in central Jerusalem in an area of discotheques and nightclubs called the Russian Compound.

On May 18 a suicide bomber with the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas set off a blast outside a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Netanya that killed him and five Israelis.

The Israeli government retaliated with F-16 fighter planes for that bombing with attacks against Palestinians, killing 18.

The deaths bring the toll to at least 450 Palestinians, 108 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs killed since a Palestinian revolt erupted last September after peace talks became deadlocked.

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