Israel has vowed to hunt down those behind two terrorist attacks in Kenya and Israel yesterday in which 18 civilians died and at least 100 others were injured in operations deliberately targeting Israeli civilians.
Three Israelis - including two children - died in Mombasa along with nine Kenyans when three suicide bombers drove a four-wheel-drive jeep into the foyer of a luxury Indian Ocean beach hotel.
The hotel entrance and nearby thatched huts and beach bars were blown to pieces. Some 80 people were wounded. The scene was one of utter carnage.
At about the same time and in an apparently co-ordinated attack, 261 Israeli holiday-makers escaped death when two surface-to-air missiles fired at a passenger jet taking off from Mombasa Airport narrowly missed their target.
The missiles almost hit the aircraft's wing and tail but it continued its journey, landing at Tel Aviv under Israeli air force escort to the cheers of passengers unaware until that moment of their narrow escape.
Also yesterday, two gunmen sprayed machine-gun fire at a group of people in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean queuing to vote in the Likud Party leadership election. Six people died before the gunmen were shot dead.
Both Israel and Kenya blamed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation for the Kenyan attacks, although responsibility was claimed by previously unheard-of organisations, linking themselves to the Palestinian situation. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, admitted responsibility for the gun attack in Israel.
A spokesman for President Bush said it was too early to say whether the Kenyan attacks were the work of al-Qaeda - a reservation not shared in either Israel or Kenya. Mr Bush, celebrating Thanksgiving at his Texas ranch, condemned the attacks and offered US help in the investigation.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, urged Palestinians to take "immediate and sustained steps to eradicate the infrastructure of terrorism and violence".
Spokesmen for the Israeli government said the attacks were carefully planned and co-ordinated and bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda. The Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, vowed that Israel would hunt down the perpetrators.
"Our hand will reach them," he told reporters. "If anyone doubted that the citizens of the state of Israel cannot stand up to the killers of children, this doubt will be removed."
Kenyan police said they had arrested two people in Mombasa in connection with the attacks following a tip-off and that the suspects were being questioned.
"We are holding two people of Arab descent," said Kenya's minister in charge of internal security, Mr Julius Sunkuli. Mombasa is a multi-cultural city, being home to Kenyans, Gulf Arabs and people from the Indian sub-continent.
The attacks have underscored what some analysts believe to be a growing breeding ground for international guerrillas in east Africa, created by unrest, poverty and lax security.