The Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, ordered the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, to investigate the dual attack in Kenya yesterday, and his Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, vowed that Israel would hunt down the perpetrators.
"Our hand will reach them," Mr Mofaz told reporters at a press conference, hours after the attack on the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, which killed at least 15 people, including three Israelis, nine Kenyans and the three bombers.
In an almost simultaneous attack, an Israeli charter plane taking off from Mombasa, had a narrow escape when shoulder-launched missiles fired at it missed their target.
"If anyone doubted that the citizens of the state of Israel cannot stand up to the killers of children, this doubt will be removed," Mr Mofaz said, referring to the fact that two of the Israelis killed were children.
Even though a previously unknown group, calling itself The Government of Universal Palestine in Exile, claimed responsibility for the twin attacks, the view in Israeli intelligence yesterday was that they were the work of the al-Qaeda organisation of Osama bin Laden.
Another unknown group, the Army of Palestine, also claimed responsibility.
The recent shift in al-Qaeda rhetoric - the organisation has begun focusing more on the Israeli-Arab conflict - and the fact that a tourist destination was again targeted, as happened in Bali, have strengthened the Israeli security establishment's belief that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda.
Although Israel has responded to Palestinian attacks with sweeping military raids in the West Bank, it was not immediately clear how it might react to a terror attack beyond its borders.
In the past, the Mossad has hunted down terror suspects and killed them in covert operations.
"We will have to wait for further information and intelligence to see where the tracks lead to and then Israel will make decisions," said Mr Zalman Shoval, an aide to Mr Sharon.
The Israeli security establishment did not receive any specific warning about plans to attack the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, but security sources said that in recent months there have been warnings that Islamic groups might try to strike at Israeli or Jewish targets abroad.
In one such attack, the most prominent since September 11th, close to 20 people were killed, most of them German tourists, in a bomb attack on an ancient synagogue on the Tunisian island of Jerba in April. Several months after the attack, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
Kenya is a popular destination for Israeli tourists, many of whom fly abroad on week-long charters, often in a bid to escape the psychological pressure of the ongoing attacks in their own country.
"We came here on holiday," said one Israeli tourist, identified only as Lior, who was caught in the attack on the hotel.
"We had just got to the hotel and were talking about how lovely it is here. About how we had escaped from all the mess [back home], and were ready for a week of fun and leisure. Then, suddenly, just as we were going to our room, there was an explosion."