out of the sinai

And so once again, the Jerusalem Post reports suicide bombers have struck inside an Israeli city with the infamous green line. This time it is being reported that the bombers entered Israel via the Sinai.

One woman was killed and ten were wounded, one critically, one moderately and eight lightly, in a suicide attack in a Dimona commercial center. Police said the attack was a suicide bombing carried out by two attackers, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other terrorist was killed by a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene, seconds before he could explode himself. Magen David Adom ambulances evacuated the wounded to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Rosa Elberg, a resident of the town, said that the bomber detonated his explosives inside a café. "It is like a war, people are running like crazy," she told Channel 2. "I didn't see anyone suspicious. I heard a boom and my ears are still ringing." Another eyewitness told Israel Radio that many people were at the commercial center at the time because of the sunny weather. Shalom Bar Avi, a journalist speaking to Channel 10, said "I am here no longer as a journalist but a simple citizen ... I pray and hope my wife is okay." Bar Avi praised the police's quick response to the attack, and said the officer who identified the second attacker shot "four or five times ... he took no chances."

The Jerusalem Brigades of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, confirming in its statement the attackers entered Israel through the Sinai, but several minutes later several organizations claimed responsibility for the attack. Both Hamas and Fatah claimed the attack, Channel 10 said. Southern Israel has been on alert against terror attacks since the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers breached the border with Egypt on January 23. The breach made the Negev, where Dimona is located, more vulnerable to penetration by Palestinian terrorists who could enter through the Sinai.

Once again, Islamic Jihad claims responsibility but how the smallest of the terror groups, (in terms of men, money and operational capacity) from the Gaza Strip have the ability to carry out almost all of the terror attacks is, well, somewhat of a puzzle - or maybe its Hamas’s version of plausible deniability?