Israel responded today to the killing of at least 22 people by Palestinian suicide bombers with a helicopter attack.
Israel also barred Palestinians from going to a London peace conference and a PLO meeting in the West Bank.
More than 100 people were wounded in the Tel Aviv blasts yesterday, the most serious attacks in Israel in six months.
The bombings, condemned as "terrorism" by the Palestinian Authority, came just three weeks before an election in Israel at which security concerns will be paramount for many voters and could smooth right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bid to regain power.
Hours after two Palestinian suicide bombers detonated explosives packed with nails and bolts, Israeli helicopters attacked two metal foundries in Gaza City which the army described as weapons factories. Five people were wounded in the Israeli air raid.
Israeli government sources said Mr Sharon tempered a military response to the bombings to avoid upsetting US efforts to win Arab support for possible war on Iraq.
By midday today, 15 of the dead had been identified. Eleven were Israelis and four were foreigners - two Romanians, one Ghanaian and a Bulgarian.
Israeli government sources said Sharon's security cabinet decided to stop top Palestinian officials from travelling to a January 14th London conference sponsored by Britain on Middle East peace and Palestinian Authority reforms demanded by Washington.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he deplored the suicide bombings but regretted the decision to impede talks.
The government sources said Israel would also prevent the Palestinian Central Council from meeting for the first time in two years on January 9th to ratify a Palestinian constitution, including a clause establishing the post of prime minister.
The militant al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attacks in statements yesterday and today, saying it was retaliating for demolitions of Palestinian homes.