Sunday's double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that left at least 22 people dead, was carried out by a Tanzim cell from the West Bank city of Nablus, head of research in Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser said Monday at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The MI commander said that the cell was also responsible for the terror attacks in recent months in Tel Aviv's old central bus station, the Kfar Sava mall, kibbutz Metzer and Beit She'an.
Earlier Monday there was some confusion over who was responsible for the attack, with both Islamic Jihad and Hamas claiming responsibility. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, had taken responsibility for the attack Sunday, but Fatah denied any connection to it.
Kuperwasser told the committee that there was a serious dispute among Fatah members on carrying out suicide attacks inside Israel. He said that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was maneuvering between the moderate Fatah factions that are opposed to suicide bombings inside the 1967 Green Line border, and the more extreme factions.
According to Kuperwasser, the Palestinians were still vigorously building terror the infrastructure, and therefore it was hard for the more moderate groups to tone-down the Palestinian populations' support for terror.
"Everything that happens in Fatah-Tanzim is directly connected to Arafat, who meets with them and finances their operations, " Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the committee Monday.
He said that there was direct correlation between the lifting of the curfews in the West Bank city of Nablus over a week ago and the Tel Aviv suicide bombing.
Mofaz said that in his opinion Arafat would soon be replaced as PA leader. "It is only a matter of time until Arafat no longer remains where he is. As long as Arafat heads the pyramid, there is no chance Palestinian terror and violence will stop."
According to Mofaz, the IDF, Shin Bet security service and police have made 1,500 arrests over the past two months, and have managed to foil 90 percent of potential terror attacks.
14 Israelis, 6 foreigners among vicitms of attack
Twenty of the 22 people killed in Sunday night's double suicide bombing have been identified, and the victims include 14 Israelis and six foreigners. For a list of the victims click here
As of early Monday afternoon, 47 of the approximately 100 people wounded in the attack were still hospitalized. Two were wounded critically, five seriously, two moderately-to-seriously, and the rest lightly-to-moderately.
The attack took place around 6:30 P.M. Sunday evening at the old central bus station in south Tel Aviv.
Part of the delay in identifying the four as-yet unknown victims may be due to the difficulty of reaching family members of non-Israelis, some of whom may live abroad or be afraid to come forward. The victims include two citizens of Romania, one from Ghana and one Bulgarian.
The government has announced that anyone who requires treatment or comes to look for a friend or family member who may have been in the attack is immune from prosecution. Many foreign workers - some of them illegal - live in the area of the attack.
The two suicide bombers blew themselves up within less than a minute of one another, at the corner of G'dud Ha'ivri and Neve She'anan streets in south Tel Aviv.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said that the explosive devices used by the bombers were loaded with metal shards in order to maximize the destruction.
"From the extent of the damage on the scene... they were very strong explosive devices. In each case metal fragments were added to the explosives to increase the amount of death," he said.
Israel seeks to reassure fearful foreign workers
Channel Two television reported that foreign workers in Israel illegally had been wounded in the attack but were hiding for fear of deportation.
Television stations read police announcements in English, assuring illegal foreign workers that they would not be deported if they sought treatment or searched for friends and relatives in hospital.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai ordered immunity from prosecution for all foreign workers caught up in the attack, through injury to themselves or their families.
The attack was the first suicide bombing in an Israeli city since November, when a suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing himself and 11 passengers.
On July 17 2002, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to the Neve Sha'anan Quarter in Tel Aviv, killing three people and wounding 40 others. On January 25, 2002, 32 people were wounded in a suicide blast on Neve Sha'anan Street.