Deadly Cycle of Violence Escalates in Mideast

JERUSALEM (AP) -- In back-to-back attacks early Tuesday, a Palestinian man opened fire on a crowded Tel Aviv restaurant, a suicide bomber blew himself up on an Israeli bus and gunmen ambushed Israeli motorists in the West Bank. In all, five Israelis and two Palestinian assailants were killed.

Also Tuesday, a bomb went off in the yard of an Arab high school, lightly injuring seven students and a teacher. Israeli media said a previously unknown group, apparently consisting of Jewish extremists, claimed responsibility.

And in the Gaza Strip, 15 Palestinians were wounded, three of them seriously, when an explosion -- apparently caused by a bomb that went off prematurely -- rocked a building under construction in a residential area of Gaza City.