"Suddenly there was a boom. The whole restaurant flew in the air," said Azi Otmazgo, 35, who was inside and was wounded on his hands, foot and head.

The bomb, laced with nails and other projectiles, shattered car windshields, smashed windows of nearby buildings and blew away the restaurant's sign. Glass shards and blood splattered the ground. Police said the guard was torn in half by the blast.

Six Israelis and two Romanian workers were among those killed. One woman was killed while standing near her husband and children who were wounded, witnesses said.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad militants handed out pastries on the streets in celebration.

The attack was the deadliest since 16 people were killed in a double suicide bombing on two buses in the southern city of Beersheba on Aug. 31, 2004. It was the second major Passover bombing in four years. A 2002 attack at a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya killed 29 people and unleashed a major Israeli military offensive.

Islamic Jihad identified Monday's bomber as Samer Hammad from a village outside the northern West Bank town of Jenin. In a video released by the group, Hammad said the bombing was dedicated to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "There are many other bombers on the way," he said.