Eight killed in suicide attack in Tel Aviv

At least eight people were killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a restaurant in a busy area of Tel Aviv.

At least eight people were killed and more than 40 wounded, many of them seriously, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a restaurant in a busy area of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv on Monday.

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The explosion took place at the eating joint near the central old bus station in southern Tel Aviv when it was packed with Jewish Passover holiday travellers.

The attack came hours before a special session of Knesset to inaugurate the new Israeli Parliament elected last month and was the first suicide bombing in Israel since the radical Hamas group took over the reins of the Palestinian government.

The Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack, media reports said.

The group, which has not accepted a fragile ceasefire Hamas and other factions have been observing with Israel, has claimed responsibility for all six of the previous suicide attacks inside Israel following the truce declaration.

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country would respond "as necessary" to the bombing. "Israel was investigating what exactly had occurred and who was responsible...We will know how to respond. We know what to do," he said.