Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for bomb blast in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Monday for a bomb blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv that Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency described as a terrorist attack.

A man who was carrying the bomb was killed and a passerby was injured in the incident late on Sunday, according to police at the scene in Israel's commercial capital.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the man was carrying a backpack loaded with explosives that detonated "before he managed to reach a more heavily populated area".

In a joint statement, the two Palestinian militant groups said their "martyrdom operations" inside Israel would return to the forefront as long as the "occupation's massacres and assassination policy continue". This was an allusion to Israel's offensive in Gaza and the July 31 killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh's death in the Iranian capital.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 last year when Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign has since levelled wide swathes of the Gaza Strip and killed at least 40,000 people, according to the enclave's health authorities.

Sunday's explosion in Tel Aviv came about an hour after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza to end the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

There has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of an escalation across the wider region. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Haniyeh.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Maytaal Angel and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Heinrich)