At least one person has been killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Israel on Monday — the first inside the country for a year.
Firefighters told radio stations that at least one person had died in the blast, which happened in the commercial district of the southern town of Dimona. The Jewish Zaka volunteer rescue service put the death toll at three.
”We heard a big explosion, and people began running,” a shop owner, who gave her name as Ravital, told Israel Army Radio. ”I saw pieces of flesh flying in the air.”
Israeli police said there were two attackers, although only one managed to detonate his explosives belt. The second was shot dead before he could set off his explosives, local media reports said.
The Army of Palestine militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to a source from Fatah, the party of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
However, there were also reports that Islamic Jihad, another militant faction, had claimed responsibility. – Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008