Nightclub suicide bomber foiled

A suicide bomber tried to attack a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub early today, police said, but a security guard shot him before he could blow it up with a car bomb.

"A big tragedy was averted here," said Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon, commenting on the second near-miss in the city in less than 24 hours.

He said the attacker planned to blow up the "Studio 49" club packed with about 200 people after midnight.

The guard Eli Federman, 36, told reporters that he saw the car turn sharply and race toward the club. He opened fire, hitting the attacker, who started falling out of the car, setting off a blast. "Then I fired the rest of the bullets into his head," killing him, he said. One other person was wounded.

Yesterday morning, after a bomb went off under a tanker truck when it entered Israel's main fuel depot next to Tel Aviv, Mr Sedbon said a disaster had been averted by "a miracle," because the blast did not ignite the huge fuel tanks.

In Gaza City early Friday, witnesses said Israeli troops entered the Zeitoun neighbourhood and blew up three small factories. No one was hurt, and one person was arrested, they said.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer acknowledged that Israel's recent military operation in the West Bank had heightened motivation among militants to carry out attacks. He said that the recent lull in attacks would not last. "We are faced with waves of suicide bombers," he said.

In Nablus, Palestinian security officials said two Palestinians were killed when a bomb they were constructing in a house exploded prematurely.