JERUSALEM, April 18 — Israel said Tuesday that it would increase political pressure on the Palestinian government in response to a suicide bombing the day before, but gave no hint of planning a major military response or singling out members of the Hamas-dominated government for arrest or assassination.
The bombing, at a small Tel Aviv restaurant, killed nine people and further heightened tensions between Israel and Hamas, the radical Islamic movement that assumed control of the Palestinian Authority ministries last month.
Israel's prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, huddled with senior aides and top security officials on Tuesday and chose to emphasize diplomatic and political pressure rather than a large military response, officials said.
The Israeli approach is intended to maintain Western and other international support for boycotting the new Palestinian government, which is struggling with a financial crisis and political isolation.
‘The Hamas government needs to understand that it is making itself an international pariah when it will not even condemn ‘terror’ attacks like the one on Monday,’ said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
The bombing was carried out by Islamic Jihad, which is not part of the government. But Israel says it considers the government responsible, arguing that it has encouraged attacks and is not trying to stop them.
Hamas and some officials in the Palestinian Authority, which it now controls, described the bombing as a legitimate act of self-defense in response to what it called Israeli aggression.
Atef Adwan, a Hamas minister in the Palestinian Authority's cabinet, said Israel was using the bombing ‘to find a pretext to act against the Palestinian institutions and act against the Palestinian people,’ The Associated Press reported.
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the bombing, as he has done with past attacks. But on Tuesday, Palestinian militants from several groups, including some linked to his Fatah movement, demanded that he apologize for his remarks.
Mr. Abbas ‘should have condemned the killings of our people and fighters rather than condemning Palestinian acts of self-defense,’ the militants said in a statement, which was read by a masked gunman at a news conference in Gaza City.
Israel already imposes a web of travel restrictions against the Palestinians and conducts almost daily arrest raids against suspected militants. Israel intends to continue those steps, and perhaps strengthen them, but did not approve any sweeping new measures, Israeli officials said.
Israel did announce one specific punishment, saying three members of the Palestinian Parliament who belong to Hamas and live in East Jerusalem will have their Israeli residency permits revoked. If they lose their permits, they will have to leave East Jerusalem.
‘You cannot have all the rights of residency and be supporting terror at the same time,’ said Gideon Meir, a senior official in Israel's Foreign Ministry. ‘We don't believe these people should be entitled to Israeli social security payments.’
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and regards it as part of its capital. The Palestinian leadership has long sought a capital in East Jerusalem.
About 200,000 Palestinians live there and have Israeli residency permits that allow them to live, work and travel in Israel. In contrast, only a small number of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have permission to enter Israel.
The current Israeli security measures include a ban on Palestinians' entering Israel, which has been in place since March 11. Israel has frequently imposed such measures during the past five years of fighting, but this closing has been unusually long.
In maintaining it, Israel has cited a high number of intelligence warnings about planned Palestinian attacks, as well as the prelude to its election on March 28 and Jewish holidays including Passover, a weeklong festival that is nearing its conclusion.
In addition, Israel carries out almost nightly arrest raids in the West Bank, focusing for the past year on Islamic Jihad members in the northern West Bank. Islamic Jihad has carried out eight of the nine Palestinian suicide bombings since the beginning of last year, and most of the bombers have come from that area.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that 38 people suspected of being Palestinian militants were arrested overnight in the West Bank, including the father of Sami Hammad, the suicide bomber in the attack on Monday, according to Israeli news reports.
In another development, the new Palestinian finance minister, Omar Abdel-Razeq, offered additional details of the grim financial situation facing the Palestinian Authority. The authority has debts of some $1.3 billion and is running out of credit with banks, he said.
In addition, the Palestinian Authority needs about $150 million a month just to pay employees and keep basic services running. It still has not paid salaries for March, and Mr. Abdel-Razeq said he did not know when it would be able to do so.
In recent days, Iran and Qatar have each pledged $50 million in assistance. But the finance minister said that money had not yet arrived. Even if it does, it will not be enough to cover wages for Palestinian Authority workers for a month.
The previous Palestinian government, led by Fatah, added thousands of government workers last year and early this year in the hope that doing so would improve its election fortunes. Fatah lost the vote, but the number of government workers, which Mr. Abdel-Razeq said was supposed to be limited to 136,000, has swelled to 164,700, he said.