At least 23 people were killed and 100 others were wounded - seven critically - in a double suicide bombing at around 6:30 P.M. Sunday evening at the Old Central Bus Station in south Tel Aviv.

The two suicide bombers blew themselves up within less than a minute of one another, at the corner of G'dud Ha'ivri and Neve She'anan streets in south Tel Aviv.

"It seems according to evidence in the area that we are talking of two suicide bombers. Two explosions happened in parallel streets... It's a place where there are many foreign workers," Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon told Army Radio.

Dr. Yona Tannenbaum, the head of Abu Kabir Forensics Institute, said that the majority of the victims were Israeli, despite the attack occurring in an area frequented primarily by foreign workers.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said that the explosive devices used by the bombers were loaded with metal shards in order to maximize the destruction.

"From the extent of the damage on the scene... they were very strong explosive devices. In each case metal fragments were added to the explosives to increase the amount of death," he said.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claims attack
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, took responsibility for the attack. In a statement claiming that it was behind the bombings, the group identified the two bombers as Nablus residents Burak Hilsa and Samar A-Nuri.

"The two martyrs managed to cross all the Zionist army roadblocks and reached the heart of Tel Aviv. One blew his pure body up at the old central bus station, and the other blew himself up in another nearby street," the message said.

The statement said that it was a double martyrdom operation that killed the highest number of "the Zionist occupiers on the land of Palestine."

The group vowed to continue suicide bombing attacks, adding that the attacks "would be a revenge for the massacres carried out by Sharon against our innocent people."

Initially, a reporter for Lebanon's Al-Manar television station said that Islamic Jihad had phoned him to take responsibility for the attack, but an official in the Palestinian militant group said there had been no official statement.

Israel seeks to reassure fearful foreign workers
Channel Two television reported that foreign workers in Israel illegally had been wounded in the attack but were hiding for fear of deportation.

Television stations read police announcements in English, assuring illegal foreign workers that they would not be deported if they sought treatment or searched for friends and relatives in hospital.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai ordered immunity from prosecution for all foreign workers caught up in the attack, through injury to themselves or their families.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to convene a security meeting at 11:30 P.M. with Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the heads of the security establishment at 11:30 P.M.

The attack was the first suicide bombing in an Israeli city since November, when a suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing himself and 11 passengers.

On July 17 2002, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to the Neve Sha'anan Quarter, killing three people and wounding 40 others. On January 25, 2002, 32 people were wounded in a suicide blast on Neve Sha'anan Street.

Emergency numbers:
Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv: 12 55 133
Ministry of Immigrant Absorption: 03-97 33 333
Hotline for non-Hebrew speakers: 12 555 081010
Hotline for foreign workers: 03-687 9727
Hotline for Tel Aviv municipality: 12 55 036 666

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