TEL AVIV, Israel – When Mayor’s fast food restaurant was attacked by a suicide bomber in January, the Palestinian Arab terrorist did not use enough explosive. and managed only to injure, rather than kill, Israelis.

The same mistake was not made yesterday. Twenty-one-year-old Sami Hammad, of Islamic Jihad, carried a huge device, enough to kill nine and rip off the front of the building even though he got no closer than the entrance, where a guard stopped him.

Israel Yacoby said that moments before the blast he saw a young couple enter the restaurant with their children.

“After the explosion the mother was hurt very badly and fell to the ground,” he said. “The children screamed ‘mummy, mummy,’ but I saw the father was in shock.”

In this deeply divided country, love of falafel is one of the few things that unites Jew and Arab. The reputation enjoyed by Mayor’s for making top-quality falafel and shawarma meant the bomber could be all but certain that it would be crowded with Jews, Arabs, and foreign workers, gathered in the belief that one of their favorite haunts would be unlikely to be hit again by the terrorists.

A photographer, Eyal Ofer, noticed that security had been improved since the January attack.

“The fence looked a bit rudimentary but it turns out that the security guard was able to stop the latest bomber entering the restaurant, where he would have caused even more bloodshed.”