Clock ticks Arafat

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up in a crowded Israeli beach restaurant in the northern city of Haifa on Saturday, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens, rescue workers and police said.

Militant group Islamic Jihad said it was behind the attack and named the bomber as a woman from Jenin. The group said by telephone that the woman was called Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, 29. It said the attack was in revenge for the death of her brother and cousin, Islamic Jihad members who were killed by Israeli troops.

The attack on the Jewish Sabbath, just a day before the start of the solemn Yom Kippur fast day, was likely to draw public and Right-Wing pressure on the government to make good its threat to 8216;8216;remove8217;8217; Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

8216;8216;There was a security guard outside but the attacker managed to enter and blow up,8217;8217; National Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishky told reporters outside the charred exterior of Maxim restaurant. The restaurant is owned by a Christian Arab and a Jewish family.

Hospital officials said many children were among the wounded. 8216;8216;There are 51 injured and about 18 dead,8217;8217; said n unidentified spokesman for the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

8216;8216;Israeli citizens were once again struck by Palestinian terrorists,8217;8217; said David Baker, an official in PM Ariel Sharon8217;s office.

Earlier, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian militant and a boy in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank on Saturday, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli military sources confirmed the death of the militantbut said they had no reports of a boy being killed.

Witnesses said Israeli troops in armoured vehicles enteredthe refugee camp and shot dead Sarhan Sarhan, a militant accused of killing five Israelis in a shooting ambush in Israel in November 2002. Two militants who were with him fled. 8212;Reuters