Israel, Gaza Conflict: Tel Aviv Bus Bomb Injures At Least 10
At least 10 people were injured Wednesday in a bus explosion in Israel's commercial city of Tel Aviv, in which one Israeli official called a "terrorist attack."
Three of the wounded people are in a serious condition, according to emergency services, and the bus was reportedly passing a military headquarters at the time of the explosion. Police said the blast happened on Shaul HaMelech Street, which runs just behind the Kiriya, Israel's defense ministry.
Police are still searching for a suspect, however, loudspeaker announcements in Gaza City said Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has run Gaza since 2007, had carried out the attack, according to BBC.
In Gaza, a mosque broadcast praised the attack, saying, "God is great, God is great. An operation in the heart of the Zionist entity." Celebratory gunfire in Gaza could be heard after the explosion occurred.
Al-Aqsa television channel on Wednesday also welcomed news of the explosion.
"Hamas welcomes the martyrdom operation and affirms that it is a natural reply to to the massacre of the Dallu family and the targeting of Palestinian civilians," it said in a statement, referring to nine members of a Gaza family who were killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, according to Times Live.
Ofir Gendelman, spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahum, said on his Twitter account that the explosion was a "terrorist attack."
The explosion happened on the eighth day of fighting between Israelis and militants in Gaza. Following the incident, huge blasts were heard in Gaza, results of an Israeli strike on a football stadium, and 11 people were killed in Gaza, according to the news report.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Israel on Wednesday to talk with Prime Minister Netanyahu on ways to end the fighting in and around Gaza, with a Gaza truce also on the table. That same day she traveled to Cairo to met with Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to discuss a possible truce in Gaza, Egypt's news agency reported.
