Bomber kills 3 in resort town, Israeli police say

updated 4:01 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2007

EILAT, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a bakery in this southern Israeli resort town on Monday, killing three people and himself, police said. It was the first suicide bombing in Israel in nine months and the first ever to hit Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city.

The morning attack struck Eilat, a normally tranquil Red Sea resort located at Israel’s southern tip near the Jordanian and Egyptian borders. Separated from Israel’s largest cities by hundreds of miles of desert, it has been largely immune from Israeli-Palestinian fighting and is a popular getaway for Israelis.

Israeli leaders said the bombing jeopardized a two-month truce in Gaza. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue the “ongoing and never-ending struggle against terrorists.”

His defense minister, Amir Peretz, convened an emergency meeting of top security officials. “This is a grave incident, it’s an escalation and we shall treat it as such,” Peretz said.

A spokesman for Hamas, the radical Islamic group that controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet, praised the bombing as a “natural response” to Israeli policies — a position likely to complicate the group’s efforts to end a crippling aid boycott imposed by the international community.

Two Palestinian militant groups, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

Both groups said the bombing was meant to help bring an end to weeks of Palestinian infighting that has killed more than 60 people in the Gaza Strip since December. Fighting continued across the Gaza Strip on Monday, and four people were killed officials said.

“The operation has a clear message to the Palestinian rivals. It is necessary to end the infighting and point the guns toward the occupation that has hurt the Palestinian people,” a posting on the Islamic Jihad Web site said.

The group identified the bomber as Mohammed Siksik, 20, of Gaza City. Saksak’s family said he had left their home three days ago and not returned.

Relatives said he was despondent because he was unemployed and his baby daughter died recently of an illness. Also, his best friend was killed in a clash with Israeli forces, they said, and his brother is a top Islamic Jihad militant.

Blast shakes building
Benny Mazgini, 45, said he was in an apartment across the street when the building shook from the force of the blast. When he ran outside, Mazgini said, he saw body parts scattered on the sidewalk.

“It was awful — there was smoke, pieces of flesh all over the place,” Mazgini said.

The attack was the second suicide bombing in Israel since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections last January. The group came under heavy criticism for making statements in support of an April suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv restaurant that killed 12 people shortly after it took power.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, called the attack a “natural response” to Israeli military policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as its ongoing boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian government. “So long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate,” he said.

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