Tel Aviv: At least nine people died and more than 60 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a fast food restaurant in southern Tel Aviv on Monday.
Officials said that Israeli police have detained three Palestinian suspects, while a bomb squad was examining their vehicle.
The suspects were stopped at a checkpoint between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities suspected the vehicle was "directly connected" to the attack.
Meanwhile, medical sources said most of the victims were killed at the scene while two other victims died later in hospital.
The bomber detonated his bomb in the bustling Neve Shaanan district near a bus station.
A spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas called the attack an act of "self-defence", while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the blast.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel held the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority responsible for the bombing.
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to the Fatah movement of Abbas, claimed responsibility.
