The spokesman said the attack was to avenge the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli soldiers and for "the massacres of Sharon."

Fifty dead Palestinians have been killed since the last bombing. Only BBC News bothers to mention them

Pair of Bombers Kill 23 in Israel; Reprisals Begin
A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up just seconds apart today in a downtown area crowded with foreign laborers, killing 23 other people and injuring 100 more, in the deadliest attack against Israel in 10 months.

The attackers, only 500 feet away from each other, set off their bombs 30 seconds apart. The first attacker stood in front of a bus stop, the second next to a currency exchange kiosk in a pedestrian mall, both sites teeming with Sunday evening shoppers. The blasts blew out windows, burned awnings and scattered limbs and torsos across two wide swaths.

A spokesman for Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian militant organization, claimed responsibility.

The death toll kept climbing into the night here, making the tandem bombing the worst attack since a suicide bomber killed 29 people at the Park Hotel in Netanya during the Passover Holiday last March. That assault sent Israeli forces wheeling into the West Bank in a fierce counterattack.

Indeed, by this evening, Israeli reprisals had already begun. As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet met in emergency session, Israeli gunships entered the skies over Gaza and began rocketing Palestinian positions there.

The attacks in Tel Aviv tonight were the first suicide bombings in Israel since Nov. 21, when a Palestinian bomber killed 11 people aboard a bus in Jerusalem. Together, they appeared to shatter any hope that recent Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at persuading the main Palestinian factions to abstain from such attacks would have anything but a momentary effect.

Indeed, Israeli officials said tonight that the recent drop-off in suicide attacks had been nothing more than a testament to Israeli efforts to stop them.

Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron, a chief spokeswoman for the Israeli military, said Israeli forces had disrupted more than 150 attempted attacks on Israel in the past month.

At the same time, Israeli forces have carried out numerous operations of their own, including the targeted killings of several Palestinians. Last month, Israeli undercover teams killed eight Palestinians in a single evening.

Israeli officials said they had been inundated recently with intelligence reports that attacks were on the way. Israeli soldiers combed the area between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Saturday night, lighting the sky with flares and the beams of helicopter searchlights.

"We were not able to stop all of them," General Yaron said, referring to the attackers.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades spokesman identified the two men who he said had carried out the bombings as a 19-year old and a 20-year-old from Nablus. The spokesman said the attack was to avenge the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli soldiers and for "the massacres of Sharon."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/06/international/middleeast/06MIDE.html?pagewanted=all&position=top