Five Israelis were killed and dozens wounded on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a shopping mall in the northern coastal town of Netanya.
The attack at the Hasharon mall, the target of a similar bombing less than six months ago, was roundly condemned by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United States, which said it would only undermine the peace process.
Responsibility was claimed by Islamic Jihad, the radical group that has been behind all suicide bombings inside Israel since the main armed factions signed a truce agreement in March.
Police said the bomber was carrying several kilogrammes of explosives in a bag but was prevented from entering the mall by a policeman and a guard at around 11:30 am (0930 GMT).
A search was underway to find two cars seen driving away from the scene just before the blast.
Apart from the bomber, four people died at the scene of the blast and a fifth died of his wounds in hospital, police and medical sources said. Another 30 people were injured.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said four badly burned bodies could be seen lying on the road outside the mall. Glass and rubble littered the area while nearby buildings had their windows blown out.
Witnesses said the blast was near deafening.
"My ears were ringing for five minutes and I was trembling with fear as one of my two daughters was inside the mall," said 38-year-old Yaffa Silberman.
Police said a greater tragedy was prevented by an alert policewoman at the entrance to the mall, who spotted the bomber and alerted the guards.
They grabbed the bomber and shoved him against the outer walls, but he somehow managed to detonate the explosives.
Chunks of stone and shattered glass was scattered all around the ruined entrance to the mall, which was splattered with bloodstains, some as high up as five metres (yards).
"I shouted for them to get his hand out of the bag, so the guard grabbed him, but he pressed something - I was looking into his eyes as he pressed something and blew up," said policewoman Shoshi Atiya.
Five people were killed outside the same mall on July 12 in an attack also carried out by Islamic Jihad.
The blast was the first suicide attack since late October, when another Islamic Jihad bomber blew himself up in the northern town of Hadera.
Jihad named Monday's bomber as 21-year-old Lotfi Amine Abu Saada from a village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack as "terrorism", ordering the security services "to catch whoever is responsible for this attack and bring them to justice."
But Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the bloodshed demonstrated the Palestinian Authority's inaction in the face of hard-liners.
"This attack is proof that the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to fight terrorists," said Shalom.
The main armed factions are meant to be observing a truce but it has been less than watertight.
Egypt, which helped broker March's truce, condemned the suicide bombing as counterproductive.
Such attacks "greatly harm the chances of the Palestinians to achieve their rights and establish their own state", Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said.
Jacob Walles, the US consul general for east Jerusalem, told reporters in Ramallah the attack was aimed at undermining peace efforts.
"People who are behind this attack are the enemies of peace and are undermining the interests of the Palestinian Authority. We will continue our efforts to work with parties to advance the peace process," he added.
His comments were echoed EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who said the attack was "clearly destined to undermine the recent positive and concrete steps taken by the Israelis and Palestinians with a view to re-establishing confidence between the two parties."