Israeli security men guarding the US embassy in Tel Aviv captured a Palestinian suicide bomber who bolted from the entrance of a nearby cafe after his explosive belt set off a metal detector alarm.
No one was injured in the incident on Tel Aviv's busy beachfront esplanade last night, apparently the latest attempt by Palestinian militant groups to avenge recent Israeli army raids in the Gaza Strip which caused Palestinian civilian casualties.
This morning, a Palestinian farmer was shot dead by Israeli troops as he was working in a field in Gaza near the border with Israel, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.
The foiled bombing in Tel Aviv marked the second time in two days Palestinian suicide attackers failed to hit their intended targets in what appeared to be a fresh wave of bombing attempts.
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Briefing reporters at the scene, police officers said the bomber, who they identified as a Palestinian, tried to enter the crowded seafront Tayelet Cafe. "I checked him with a metal detector and it began to beep," the cafe's security guard, Mr Michael Sarkisov, told Israel Radio. "I asked him, 'What's this?, and he answered, 'It's mine'...His hand was in his pocket and I saw wires in it. I realised he was a terrorist."
Meanwhile Israeli soldiers arrested three activists of the radical Islamic Palestinian group Hamas in the West Bank overnight.
Two militants were siezed in the village of Beit al-Rush al-Fuqa, southwest of Hebron. The third was captured in Jama'in, near the northern city of Nablus.