TEL AVIV, Israel – A Palestinian Arab man detonated explosives he was carrying yesterday in a busy commercial section of Tel Aviv, killing himself and at least nine Israelis in the first suicide bombing inside the country this year that has claimed Israeli lives.

More than 60 Israelis were wounded in the attack, which filled local emergency rooms throughout the holiday afternoon.

The lunch-hour bombing outside a restaurant popular with blue-collar Israelis and immigrant workers appeared timed to inflict the maximum number of injuries on a day when many here were vacationing during the Passover holiday. A 22-year-old Palestinian Arab man attacked the same food stand in January, wounding two dozen Israelis and killing himself.

“I felt something fall on my head,” a grocery store employee injured in the blast, Avi Otmazgo, 35, said. “I started to run and saw a woman lying on the floor in a pool of blood.”

Mr. Otmazgo said he was waiting for his order at Mayor Falafel and Shawarma, one of his favorite restaurants, when a booming explosion flashed outside the door just yards from the counter where he stood.

“If I would have been outside I would have been one of the dead,” Mr. Otmazgo said before being taken into surgery at Ichilov Hospital here with shrapnel wounds to his head and body.

The attack was the first inside Israel since a cabinet led by a radical Islamic terrorist group at war with the Jewish state, Hamas, took control of the Palestinian ministries last month. In the ensuing hours, the divergent reactions from Hamas leaders and their rivals in the Fatah party highlighted the tensions within the Palestinian Authority over relations with Israel.

The bomber was identified as a member of the Islamic Jihad organization from the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya, Sami Saleem Mohammed. The radical Islamic group, which receives some financial support from Iran, has carried out every suicide bombing inside Israel since other Palestinian Arab armed groups agreed to an informal cease-fire last year.

In a statement issued by his office, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the bombing undermined Palestinian Arab interests. He called on America, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations – the group of Middle East peace interlocutors known as the quartet – to stop the “grave deterioration the region is witnessing now.”

But Hamas leaders declined to condemn the bombing, suggesting it was an act of self-defense. A Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zouhri, called the attack “a natural result of the continued Israeli aggression and escalation against our people.”

The attack came hours before Israel’s newly elected parliament was sworn into office. It brought a sharp condemnation from Israeli officials, who said the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority should be held responsible.

Since taking office, Hamas leaders have said they would not arrest Palestinian Arabs engaged in armed attacks against Israel.