The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Monday for a bomb blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv that Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency described as a terrorist attack.

A man who was carrying the bomb was killed and a passerby was injured in the incident late on Sunday, according to police at the scene in Israel’s commercial capital.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the man was carrying a backpack loaded with explosives that detonated “before he managed to reach a more heavily populated area”.

In a joint statement, the two Palestinian groups said their “martyrdom operations” inside Israel would return to the forefront as long as the “occupation’s massacres and assassination policy continue”. This was an allusion to Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the July 31 killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death in the Iranian capital.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 last year when Hamas gunmen entered across the border into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military campaign has since levelled wide swathes of the Gaza Strip and killed at least 40,000 people, according to the enclave’s health authorities.

Sunday’s explosion in Tel Aviv came about an hour after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza to end the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

There has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of an escalation across the wider region. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Haniyeh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli security and emergency personnel cordon off the site of an explosion in Tel Aviv on August 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades on Monday (August 19, 2024) claimed responsibility for the deadly bomb blast in Tel Aviv on Sunday (August 18, 2024).

Al-Qassam Brigades said they conducted the military operation in cooperation with the Islamic Jihad movement’s armed wing, the Al Quds Brigades.

Israeli authorities say powerful explosive’ killed 1 person in Tel Aviv Jerusalem — A blast that killed one person and wounded another in Tel Aviv on Sunday night was a terror attack caused by a large explosive device, Israeli authorities said.

Police said Sunday that the explosion killed one person, presumed to be the bomber.

Israeli media provided security footage that showed the presumed attacker walking down the street wearing a large backpack just before the explosion.

1 Palestinian killed and 2 wounded in a shooting on a street in Istanbul Istanbul — Police in Istanbul have launched a “large-scale investigation” after a Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting as they sat in a car, officials and media said Monday.

The killer dropped a handgun fitted with a silencer at the scene, the Istanbul Governor’s Office said in a brief statement.