Suicide bomber kills 3 Israelis, injures 56

Firefighters and paramedics aid the wounded after the bombing.

NETANYA, Israel (CNN) -- A suicide bomber dressed in an Israeli Army uniform detonated a powerful bomb in an open-air market in this coastal city Sunday, killing three Israelis and wounding at least 56 people, the Netanya police chief said.

Eleven of the wounded in the terror attack had severe injuries, Israeli medical sources said. At least two of the casualties died in the hospital from their wounds.

The blast was reported about 4:15 p.m. local time (9:15 a.m. ET).

"I heard a huge boom and saw body parts flying," witness Eli Maimon, told Army Radio, according to Reuters. "He [the bomber] came in an army uniform."

"This is so terrible experience, I cannot even explain by words," said Kaire Aria, an Estonian tourist who was in the market when the bomb went off.

The Netanya open air market is situated at the entrance to the city, which has been the target of a number of suicide bombings and attacks in the past.

Witnesses told Reuters the market was not too crowded at the time of the blast because it was the start of the Israeli work week.

"We were laughing about how the day had passed so quietly, and then suddenly there was an explosion," Avi Shemesh, a market vendor, told Reuters. "I saw blood everywhere, people staggering and a guy whose face was all burned."

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Within minutes of the explosion, police and emergency medical crews were on the scene, gathering evidence, finding and treating casualties and transporting people to area hospitals.

Two of the dead were identified in Israeli media as Yosef Haviv, 70, and Arkadi Wiselman, 39, a Russian immigrant. Both men lived in Netanya.

In an anonymous call to the offices of Agence France Presse in Jerusalem, a man claimed the bombing was the work of Hamas. The claim could not be verified. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also claimed responsibility, police said.

Dore Gold, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the Israeli military was putting together information on the attack to present to the Israeli Cabinet for a response.

"It's too early to say what will be the nature of that response," Gold said. "What's clear to us though is that the message that went to the Palestinian organizations [from Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat] was not ... a clear-cut condemnation of terrorism."

"It was a mixed message, and the results you have today. But you've actually had them all the past week when other attempts were made that didn't get through," he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned violence aimed at civilians but rejected blame toward the Palestinian Authority.

"And maybe and only maybe, the answer to this mess, to these killings fields out there, is not more incursions, not more tanks," Erakat said. "It's not more settlements, it's not more siege and closures.

"The answer is a high ground of resuming a meaningful peace process, by both parties, because the shortest way to peace and security to us and the Israelis is to end the Israeli occupation and to establish a Palestinian state."

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN the incident underscores the importance of taking action against terror as a weapon in the Middle East.

"People who do these sorts of things clearly do not want the Palestinian people to achieve their dream of a Palestinian state, because Israel is not going to be able to live with a Palestinian state in an atmosphere of terror," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

Arafat said on the program a week ago that preventing terrorism was not entirely in his hands, saying there was an unnamed international power supporting terrorism in the Middle East.

"I'm not speaking names," Arafat responded when asked who that might be. "Their leader, their main leaders are outside."

Reacting to Arafat's comment, Rice said, "Well, let's be clear. No one ever asked Yasser Arafat to get 100 percent results. What has been asked of him is 100 percent effort."

Netanya was the site of a suicide bombing that killed 29 Israelis on the eve of the Passover holiday March 27.

That terror attack, for which Hamas claimed responsibility, triggered the five-week Israeli military operation to root out what Israel called the "terrorist infrastructure" in the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

A Hamas leader considered to be behind a string of suicide bombings was arrested April 18 after a chase by machine gun-firing helicopters.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the man, Hossam Atef Ali Badran, "was responsible for all the most difficult attacks carried out against Israel by the Hamas during the past few years," resulting in "more than 100 Israelis killed."

Among the attacks, it said, were the Passover bombing in Netanya, a suicide bombing at a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem that killed 16 and a bus bombing in Haifa that killed eight.

Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, has been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.

The PFLP claimed responsibility for the killing of hard-line Israeli Cabinet member Rehavam Zeevi last year. The U.S. State Department says the PFLP has carried out numerous international terror attacks.