Israel raids Jenin over café bomb

The Israeli army has today raided the West Bank town of Jenin after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed a baby and her 60-year-old grandmother at an outdoor caf? in a town near Tel Aviv.

At least another 30 people were injured in the blast which tore through the caf? and an ice-cream parlour outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikva. It was the fifth such bombing in Israel in little more than a week. Confirming the deaths, a doctor said another baby was also critically wounded.

A witness said she saw the bomber walk past mumbling to himself and a few seconds later the explosion ripped through the caf?.

In Beirut, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades group, an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah political movement, claimed responsibility.

The bomber was Jihad Titi, 18-year-old cousin of the al-Aqsa militia leader in Nablus, Mahmoud Titi, killed last week. The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing.