Five Israelis were killed early Tuesday in three separate terrorist attacks. Three people were killed and 31 were wounded when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire in the middle of the night at a restaurant in central Tel Aviv. An Israeli woman was killed and her husband injured in a shooting attack on their car while they were traveling south of Jerusalem. And one Israeli was killed and 18 people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus at the Afula bus station.

Israel's security cabinet is scheduled to meet today to discuss the escalation in violence and a proposal to redeploy IDF tanks outside PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's office in Ramallah. On Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared that the only way to force the Palestinians back to the negotiating table was by delivering them "a heavy blow." Overnight Israeli jets bombed Palestinian targets in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Gaza City. Twenty Palestinians, including several women and children, were killed by IDF actions earlier on Monday.

Terror returns to Tel Aviv
A Palestinian terrorist, standing on a pedestrian footbridge and armed with an M-16 automatic rifle and at least two grenades, opened fire at diners in the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv shortly after 2:10 a.m. on Tuesday. At that hour the restaurant was crowded with people gathered for an Oriental music evening and women enjoying a bachelorettes party.

"We heard one shot and thought it was a firecracker," eyewitness Gilli Cohen told ynet. "We heard more gunfire. The terrorist sprayed the people sitting near the windows. People started to push their way to the bathrooms and there was mass hysteria."

Journalist Natan Zahavi said, "It was awful. You go out to have a good time, to escape reality, to have a little quiet, and it catches up to you there," he told Army Radio. "The entire incident lasted several seconds, two bursts of gunfire and it was over."

The terrorist finished two clips of ammunition and threw two fragmentation grenades at diners attempting to escape from the restaurant, but they did not detonate. He then headed towards the Mifgash Hasteakim restaurant next door, stabbing at police officers and civilians who stormed him and who eventually shot him dead.

Police officer Salim Barakat, 33, a resident of the Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee, Herzliya resident Yosef Haybi, 52, and Eli Dahan, 53, from Lod, were killed in the attack. Thirty-one people were injured; one was seriously wounded and the rest sustained light injuries.

The terrorist was identified as Ibrahim Mohammed Hasuna from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and the Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for the Palestinians killed on Monday, including the family of Hamas militant Hussein Abu Kweik.

Tunnels Road shooting, Afula bombing
Dvora Friedman, 45, from Efrat, was killed and her husband, who was driving their vehicle, was lightly wounded in a shooting attack Tuesday morning near the village of el-Khader on the Tunnels Road connecting Jerusalem with the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements.

According to media reports, Palestinians opened fire at security forces that arrived at the scene of the attack; the terrorist gunman reportedly managed to escape.

In a later shooting attack in the same area, Channel One television reporter Benny Lis was lightly wounded. "Because I know the place… we stayed around… and as we were filming, shots were fired at us," Lis told ynet. "I lay down on the road, and soldiers pulled me away from the firing zone with bullets landing all around me. I was hit in the hand, and then heavy gun battles broke out," he said.

Palestinians also opened fire this morning on Israeli vehicles near the Maccabim checkpoint outside Modiin. Police forces there launched a search for the gunmen.

One Israeli was killed and 18 people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on a Tel Aviv-bound bus picking up passengers at the central bus station in Afula. The terrorist boarded the bus near Nazareth and wore a heavy coat, the bus driver said. He refused change when paying his bus fare, arousing the driver's suspicions. Apparently the explosion occurred as the terrorist began to disembark in Afula.

"I was standing 15 meters from the bus and there was a huge explosion and windshields were shattered," another bus driver, Moti Ferieli, told Army Radio. "It was clear that this was a terror attack and then the usual procedure began with the arrival of ambulances."

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