Bomber's family condemn militants

The bomb was detonated in a shop in a busy Tel Aviv market

The mother of a teenage suicide bomber who blew himself up and killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv has criticised the militants who recruited him.

More than 30 others were wounded when 16-year-old Amer al-Fahr detonated about 5kg of explosives in a shop in the Israeli city's busy Carmel market.

The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said one of its members had carried out the attack.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was among those to condemn the bombing.

It's immoral to send someone so young - they should have sent an adult Suicide bomber's mother, quoted in Haaretz

The teenager's mother, 45-year-old Samira Abdullah, criticised those who had sent her son to his death.

The boy, who lived in the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, is one of the youngest Palestinian suicide bombers.

"It's immoral to send someone so young," his mother said. "They should have sent an adult who understands the meaning of his deeds."

His father Abdel Rahim, 53, said his son had woken him on Monday morning to ask for two shekels before leaving.

"Two shekels, that's what boys ask for - it's not money for men," he said.

Dazed shoppers

The bomber apparently walked into a shop with the 5kg device after 1100 (0900 GMT) on Monday, in the deadliest attack of its kind since August.

Paramedics treated dazed shoppers on the ground, amid vegetables strewn on the pavement.

More than 30 people were injured, four of them seriously.

PFLP Founded 1967 after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank Combines Arab nationalism with Marxist ideology Based in Syria, but also operates in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories Thought to have around 800 members Once linked to Bader Meinhof and Japan's Red Army Pioneered aircraft hijackings in the 1970s Lost ground to Hamas in the 90s but still seen as a threat by Israel

Mr Arafat condemned the bombing, as well as "killing on both sides", from his hospital bed in Paris, where he is currently undergoing tests for a blood ailment, his aide Nabil Abu Rdainah said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the attack "proved there has been no change in the Palestinian leadership".

He added: "We will continue to fight terror as long as they don't."

A spokesman from Islamic militant group Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, told the Associated Press the blast was evidence that the "resistance is alive".

Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy in the region, said the Palestinian Authority should "act without delay against those organising and perpetrating terror and to bring them to justice".

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman David Saranga, quoted by AFP news agency, urged the Palestinian Authority to crack down on armed militants.

Later, Israeli military sources said two Palestinians were shot during a raid on Nablus. Hospital sources said three were killed.

Meanwhile, a group of European Parliament members on a visit to Gaza criticised the Israeli army's actions there as creating the conditions for suicide bombers.

Israel insists that its military action in Gaza has been necessary to defend its civilians against Palestinian attacks.