Three PA-based terrorist organizations claimed responsibility for the attack which took the lives of three civilians and sent five people into shock Monday morning.
Spokesmen for the Fatah-backed Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and the Hizbullah-backed Islamic Jihad groups claimed joint responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency office in Gaza.
“The heroic operation announces the beginning of a series of operations in defense of (the) Al-Aksa mosque,” the two groups warned in their joint statement in a reference to recent reports of archaeological excavations near the mosque. According to Israeli officials, the mosque has not been damaged in any way.
The groups identified the bomber as 21-year-old Mohammed Faisal al-Siksek, a resident of Gaza City, according to a report by the Al Jazeera news network. “We knew he was going to carry out a martyrdom operation,” the bomber’s brother informed reporters. “His mother and father prayed for him to succeed,” he added.
A previously unknown group, the Army of Believers, also claimed responsibility for the bombing. According to the Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, the new group is “a new offshoot of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.”
Joint Operation Reveals Intricate Terrorist Connections
The Islamic Jihad organization, based in Damascus, is believed to receive funding from both Syria and Iran. Both countries also support the Hizbullah terrorist organization which kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on the Lebanon-Israel border last July. Islamic Jihad has been referred to in the past as the “Gaza branch” of Hizbullah. Goldwasser and Regev have not been heard from since their abduction. Their whereabouts and condition are unknown.
Fatah, which sponsors the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is perceived by the international community as a “moderate” PA entity and has been supported in its bloody struggle to regain control of the PA government since the Hamas terror group won in a landslide election a year ago.
Israel agreed in principle a month ago to allow thousands of PA policemen to cross the Jordan River into Gaza to strengthen the Fatah presence in the Gaza Strip. The Jewish State also recently transferred $100 million in tax monies to the PA.
PA police forces in the Gaza Strip have already received a huge supply of weapons, including 2,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 20,000 magazines and 2 million light artillery shells from Egypt. The delivery, which was carried out in cooperation with Israel, was aimed to reinforce Fatah in its militia war with Hamas.
The United States also pledged its contribution to strengthening the Fatah forces by pledging $86.4 million for that purpose.
Official PA Reaction A Mixed Message
A spokesman for the PA Fatah faction issued a statement condemning the attack. However, there was no mention of the fact that the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which also claimed responsibility for the bombing, is backed by Fatah.
Spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman said Fatah is “against any operation that targets civilians, Israelis or Palestinians.”
A spokesman for the ruling PA Hamas faction, Ismail Radwan justified the attack as “a natural response to the occupier’s crimes against our people.” A second Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum commented in Gaza that “as long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate.”
Barhoum added that it was preferable for terrorist operatives to attack Israel than to destroy each other. “The right thing is for Fatah weapons to be directed toward the occupation, not toward Hamas,” he said.
Three Hamas-sponsored terrorist organizations were responsible for the kidnap of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit on the Gaza – Israel border last June. Shalit’s whereabouts and condition are also unknown.
U.S.: Attack ‘Undermines PA Aspirations for Statehood’
The United States immediately condemned the bombing and called on the PA government to control the terrorists in its midst and prevent such attacks.
“Failure to act against terror will inevitably affect relations between that government and the international community,” warned White House spokesman Tony Snow in a statement.
Snow added that the PA government’s failure to stop the terrorism would also “undermine the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own.”
The PA demand for statehood is to be addressed in a meeting of the Quartet (the U.S., Russia, European Union and United Nations) scheduled to be held in Washington D.C. later this week. The meeting is to be a prelude to a carefully orchestrated “informal” summit between PA Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The meeting, which was organized by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent shuttle diplomacy tour of the region, was to have taken place sometime next month.
Conflicting Comments on Bomber’s Route into Israel
It was not clear how the bomber managed to infiltrate from Gaza into Israel, but officials were not surprised by the attack: several IDF officers, including Brigadier General Imad Faras, have warned in recent months that Eilat could become a terrorist target.
An Israeli military source said al-Siksek may have crossed from Gaza into Egypt and then traversed the Sinai Peninsula to cross the border.
IDF and other security officers have expressed concern over the possibility of terrorist infiltration from Egypt or Gaza due to the many gaps in the security fence on the Israel-Egypt border. The Haaretz news service quotes IDF sources who say NIS 3 billion are needed to secure the border. By the same token, security forces have foiled more than a hundred attempted infiltrations from Egypt in the past year.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman claimed, however, that al-Siksek entered the city through Jordan, which borders Eilat.
Israeli officials said they believed the bomber was actually aiming for a more crowded venue, but entered a bakery in a residential neighborhood in order to avoid local police officers who had spotted him. His bomb killed the bakery's two owners and a foreign worker for the bakery.
Eilat police added that they believed there might be more bombers in the area.
A bystander said he noticed the attacker immediately as he made his way into the “Lechaim” bakery. “I saw a man with a coat and a bag,” Eilat resident Benny Mazgini told Israel Radio. “For Eilat, where it is hot, it is weird to see someone with a coat. I asked myself, ‘Why is this idiot dressed that way?’ Seconds later, I heard a huge blast. The building shook,” he added.
Spokesmen for the Fatah-backed Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and the Hizbullah-backed Islamic Jihad groups claimed joint responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency office in Gaza.
“The heroic operation announces the beginning of a series of operations in defense of (the) Al-Aksa mosque,” the two groups warned in their joint statement in a reference to recent reports of archaeological excavations near the mosque. According to Israeli officials, the mosque has not been damaged in any way.
The groups identified the bomber as 21-year-old Mohammed Faisal al-Siksek, a resident of Gaza City, according to a report by the Al Jazeera news network. “We knew he was going to carry out a martyrdom operation,” the bomber’s brother informed reporters. “His mother and father prayed for him to succeed,” he added.
A previously unknown group, the Army of Believers, also claimed responsibility for the bombing. According to the Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, the new group is “a new offshoot of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.”
Joint Operation Reveals Intricate Terrorist Connections
The Islamic Jihad organization, based in Damascus, is believed to receive funding from both Syria and Iran. Both countries also support the Hizbullah terrorist organization which kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on the Lebanon-Israel border last July. Islamic Jihad has been referred to in the past as the “Gaza branch” of Hizbullah. Goldwasser and Regev have not been heard from since their abduction. Their whereabouts and condition are unknown.
Fatah, which sponsors the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is perceived by the international community as a “moderate” PA entity and has been supported in its bloody struggle to regain control of the PA government since the Hamas terror group won in a landslide election a year ago.
Israel agreed in principle a month ago to allow thousands of PA policemen to cross the Jordan River into Gaza to strengthen the Fatah presence in the Gaza Strip. The Jewish State also recently transferred $100 million in tax monies to the PA.
PA police forces in the Gaza Strip have already received a huge supply of weapons, including 2,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 20,000 magazines and 2 million light artillery shells from Egypt. The delivery, which was carried out in cooperation with Israel, was aimed to reinforce Fatah in its militia war with Hamas.
The United States also pledged its contribution to strengthening the Fatah forces by pledging $86.4 million for that purpose.
Official PA Reaction A Mixed Message
A spokesman for the PA Fatah faction issued a statement condemning the attack. However, there was no mention of the fact that the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which also claimed responsibility for the bombing, is backed by Fatah.
Spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman said Fatah is “against any operation that targets civilians, Israelis or Palestinians.”
A spokesman for the ruling PA Hamas faction, Ismail Radwan justified the attack as “a natural response to the occupier’s crimes against our people.” A second Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum commented in Gaza that “as long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate.”
Barhoum added that it was preferable for terrorist operatives to attack Israel than to destroy each other. “The right thing is for Fatah weapons to be directed toward the occupation, not toward Hamas,” he said.
Three Hamas-sponsored terrorist organizations were responsible for the kidnap of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit on the Gaza – Israel border last June. Shalit’s whereabouts and condition are also unknown.
U.S.: Attack ‘Undermines PA Aspirations for Statehood’
The United States immediately condemned the bombing and called on the PA government to control the terrorists in its midst and prevent such attacks.
“Failure to act against terror will inevitably affect relations between that government and the international community,” warned White House spokesman Tony Snow in a statement.
Snow added that the PA government’s failure to stop the terrorism would also “undermine the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own.”
The PA demand for statehood is to be addressed in a meeting of the Quartet (the U.S., Russia, European Union and United Nations) scheduled to be held in Washington D.C. later this week. The meeting is to be a prelude to a carefully orchestrated “informal” summit between PA Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The meeting, which was organized by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent shuttle diplomacy tour of the region, was to have taken place sometime next month.
Conflicting Comments on Bomber’s Route into Israel
It was not clear how the bomber managed to infiltrate from Gaza into Israel, but officials were not surprised by the attack: several IDF officers, including Brigadier General Imad Faras, have warned in recent months that Eilat could become a terrorist target.
An Israeli military source said al-Siksek may have crossed from Gaza into Egypt and then traversed the Sinai Peninsula to cross the border.
IDF and other security officers have expressed concern over the possibility of terrorist infiltration from Egypt or Gaza due to the many gaps in the security fence on the Israel-Egypt border. The Haaretz news service quotes IDF sources who say NIS 3 billion are needed to secure the border. By the same token, security forces have foiled more than a hundred attempted infiltrations from Egypt in the past year.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman claimed, however, that al-Siksek entered the city through Jordan, which borders Eilat.
Israeli officials said they believed the bomber was actually aiming for a more crowded venue, but entered a bakery in a residential neighborhood in order to avoid local police officers who had spotted him. His bomb killed the bakery's two owners and a foreign worker for the bakery.
Eilat police added that they believed there might be more bombers in the area.
A bystander said he noticed the attacker immediately as he made his way into the “Lechaim” bakery. “I saw a man with a coat and a bag,” Eilat resident Benny Mazgini told Israel Radio. “For Eilat, where it is hot, it is weird to see someone with a coat. I asked myself, ‘Why is this idiot dressed that way?’ Seconds later, I heard a huge blast. The building shook,” he added.