JERUSALEM, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli security forces were put on extensive high alert Tuesday while Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was to decide a response to Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

    Police across the country were on heightened vigilance for fear of a wave of terror attacks, Israel Radio reported.

    All units of the police were to take part in the anti-terror security watch, which accompanied a general Israeli army closure of the Palestinian territories and army raids into the territories.

    Security forces would keep alert at checkpoints on major highways and expand police patrols and presence at shopping centers, entertainment sites and nature areas.

    Training academies, immigration police, and traffic patrol units were to be diverted to patrol duties.

    Israeli army has sent eight companies of soldiers to the police to increase security forces presence in urban centers, the radio said.

    At least nine people were killed and about 60 wounded in the suicide bombing attack near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv.

    The Islamic Jihad (Holy War) claimed responsibility for the blast, which ripped through a shwarma (fastfood) stand.The stand had also been hit in a January terror attack, in which about 20 people were wounded.

    The bomber was identified later from the West Bank city of Jenin.

    It was the first deadly attack inside Israel after Hamas,committed to Israel's destruction, came into power in late March.

    Olmert will convene a meeting of ministers Tuesday to decide whether to take punitive action against Palestinian militants and the Hamas government, which refused to condemn the attack and called it a "self-defense."

    Israeli government officials said Monday night they must make a strategic decision on how to act toward Palestinian leaders.

    "The situation has changed," one of the officials said."In the past, the Palestinian government did not support or justify terror. Today Hamas officials publicly support terror and justify the terror attack. There is no room here for analysis. We must make a decision as to how to act toward a government that justifies terror."

    Olmert said that the bombing may have been timed specifically for Monday when the newly elected Israeli parliament held its opening session.

    He vowed that Israel would not allow those perpetrators to go unpunished. Enditem