Witnesses said the bombers attacked a crowded shopping parade in Dimona. The first reportedly blew himself up, killing at least three Israelis and wounding five.
The second was felled by the blast, and medical personnel who stripped him to administer aid spotted the belt. A policeman then shot the terrorist dead, Israeli news reports said.
The Al-Aksa Brigades, seen as an armed wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack. It said the "martyrdom operation in Dimona" had been carried out by Gaza bombers."
FATAH PARTY
There was no immediate reaction from the secular Fatah party, which is involved in peace negotiations with Israel.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) quoted Israeli officials as saying that the attackers allegedly crossed the breached border from Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai, from where it is relatively easy to enter the Jewish state.
Israel has repeatedly warned that militants could make their way through Egypt and then into Israel through Sinai in order to commit attacks. In its statement, the Al-Aksa Brigades confirmed that although the "plot had been planned for a month" it had been "made easier" to implement by the bombers blowing up the Egyptian border.
ROCKETS FIRED
Previously, Islamist militants based in Gaza repeatedly fired rockets at Israeli towns during the last year, leading to Israeli military responses and a recent blockade which Palestinians say cut Gaza residents’ energy supplies.
The West Bank, however, remains under the control of Fatah, headed by the Palestinian President Abbas. Israel did not specify what its response would be. "Israel will continue to fight terrorism by all necessary means," Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Arye Mekel said in published remarks.
The last suicide attack in Israel took place in late January last year, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bakery in the Red Sea tourist resort of Eilat, killing three people. The Islamic Jihad, the sister group of Hamas, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for that blast. (With reporting from Israel).
