A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber killed at least three Israelis at a nightclub in Tel Aviv and injured up to 55 last night, shattering a truce that had raised hopes of peace in the Middle East.

The bomb exploded amid a group of revellers queueing in front of The Stage, a popular karaoke bar. Security guards stopped him entering the club.

The bombing — the first in almost three months — shattered the relative calm that has come to Israel since Palestinian militant groups agreed to a tacit ceasefire after the election of the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

There were conflicting reports of who was behind the attack. Israeli media said Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, but Nafez Azzam, one of the group’s leaders in the Gaza Strip, said that Islamic Jihad was continuing to honour the informal ceasefire.

Palestinian security officials, accused the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. They said they had tracked recent communications between Hezbollah militant Kais Obeid and an unnamed Palestinian who they believed was the attacker. But Hezbollah in Beirut denied involvement. “There is no need to respond to such lies,” an official said.

Whoever was behind the attack, it will make Mr Abbas’s task all the more difficult. He agreed a mutual ceasefire with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on February 8.

Raanan Gissin, a senior adviser to Mr Sharon, said Israel remained committed to the agreements that it reached with the Palestinian leadership at Sharm el-Sheikh.

However, he said that it was not enough for Mr Abbas to reach agreements with groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop violence; the Palestinian Authority must take action to dismantle the infrastructure as agreed under the “road map” peace plan.

Israeli intelligence sources have accused Lebanese-based Hezbollah of attempting to mount attacks in an effort to derail the growing momentum for peace.

The explosion was on a busy strip of bars and clubs that has been targeted by suicide bombers in the past.

“I was in the club and saw the bomber. Smoke billowed from the window and then I saw wounded people lying on the floor and also bodies,” David Pardes, the club’s manager, said.

“We passed the crosswalk and suddenly there was a huge explosion,” an unnamed witness told Israel’s Army Radio. “The whole area of the club was destroyed. Debris fell to the ground and cars were smashed.”

The area was crowded with young Israelis. About 20 people were waiting to get into The Stage club on Herbert Samuel Street, close to the promenade. “I was near the club. There were about 20 people outside. Suddenly, there was an enormous explosion,” said a witness, identified only as Tsahi.

Tel Aviv was the last target for a suicide bombing when three people were killed and 35 wounded in November in an attack on the Carmel open air market that wrecked a growing lull in the violence.

But last night’s bombing echoed the attack by two British Muslims, Asif Mohammad Hanifi and Omar Khan Sharif who killed three people and wounded 35 others at Mike’s Place, a popular jazz club nearby.

A suicide bomber killed 21 people and injured 120 when he mingle with hundreds of young people waiting to enter the Dolphin Disco at a dolphinarium in Tel Aviv.

Last night the owner of The Stage said that the club was not even open when the blast went off. Tsachi Cohen was making his way to the doors he heard the blast.

A kiosk next to the nightclub was devastated by the blast accounting for a number of the wounded.

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end