Bus bomb explodes at Israeli HQ

A bomb has ripped through an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people.

The blast came amid the Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza.

The bus exploded about noon on one of the coastal city's busiest arteries, near the Tel Aviv museum and across from an entrance to the Kirya, Israel's national defence headquarters.

The bus was charred and blackened, its side windows blown out and its glass scattered on the road.

An Israeli driver who saw the explosion said the bus was "completely charred inside." Another witness said there were few passengers on the bus when it exploded.

Police said they were investigating whether the bomb had been planted and left on the bus or whether it was the work of a suicide bomber.

Of the 10 wounded, three people were moderately to seriously hurt, said a spokesman.

More than 1,000 Israelis were killed during the violent Palestinian uprising in the last decade in bombings and shooting attacks. More than 5,000 Palestinians were killed as well.

The last bombing in Tel Aviv was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people at a sandwich stand near the city's old central bus station. A bomb left at a bus stand in Jerusalem last year killed one person.

In Gaza, the Tel Aviv bombing was praised from mosque loudspeakers, while Hamas' television interviewed people praising the attack as a return of militants' trademark tactics.