Iran-Backed Militant Groups Claim Suicide Operation in Tel Aviv

(Bloomberg) -- Iran-backed Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for what they said was a “suicide mission” in Tel Aviv on Sunday, and warned of further such operations as long as Israel maintains its military campaign in Gaza.

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Islamist organizations sponsored by Tehran, said in a joint statement on Telegram they were behind the bombing incident, which Israeli authorities said killed the detonator and injured one passer-by, with no further casualties.

“The brigades confirm that the suicide operations in the occupied territories will return to the forefront as long as the occupation continues with its massacres, displacement of civilians and its policy of assassination,” the statement read.

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The attack took place as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel to press for a cease-fire agreement between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration and Hamas that would at least temporarily halt the more than 10-month war raging in Gaza. It also came as Iran weighs a response to the recent double killing of senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, the most powerful of the Islamic Republic’s allied militia groups.

The Israeli police and Israeli Security Agency confirmed that the explosion, which went off shortly after 8pm in Tel Aviv, was an attempted suicide bombing “through the detonation of a powerful explosive device.” The police said Monday that it continues “increased operational activity in crowded places” and urged the population to be vigilant.

Suicide bombings were a common form of attack in Israel in the early 2000s, though have become more rare due to a crackdown by Israeli security forces and as a result of relative calm in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank — prior to the Gaza war.

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