For the first time a suicide bombing targets Eilat. Fatah condemns the act; Hamas justifies it as an act of resistance against Israeli attacks. Meanwhile, intra-Palestinian fighting continues.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – A suicide bomber killed at least three people Monday morning in the southern resort city of Eilat. The attack is the first suicide bombing in Israel in nine months and the first one in the southern Red Sea resort town. Reports indicate some people were wounded but not in serious conditions.

Three Palestinian groups said they carried out the attack. Fatah condemned it; Hamas said it was a natural response to Israeli occupation. However, the incident seems to be related to the ongoing Palestinian infighting that killed three people today, according to Palestinian news agency Maan, bringing the death since Thursday to 33.

The Eilat attack thus seems to be designed to scuttle the meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US Secretary Condoleezza Rice, planned for the near future. By raising tensions with Israel, those behind the suicide bombing want to force Fatah to align itself with Hamas’s confrontational position.

This view is confirmed by the fact that the attacks comes a day after Fatah and Hamas accepted Saudi King Abdullah’s invitation to meet in Makkah to find a solution that would prevent intra-Palestinian clashes from turning into a civil war.

Islamic Jihad said the suicide bomber was 21- or 23-year-old Mohammad Faysal al-Siksik from Gaza City. He chose a bakery in the town’s commercial district away from the sea.

“He apparently entered with a bag or an explosives belt and blew himself up inside the shop," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Police cordoned off the area, and Eilat police Chief Bruno Stein said they believed there could be more bombers in the city.

Soon after the bombing, Fatah spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman condemned it, saying: "We are against any operation that targets civilians, Israelis or Palestinians."

But Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the bombing was a natural response to Israeli occupation.

The Hamas statement echoed a declaration by Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, was said the attack was "a natural response to the continued crimes by the Zionist enemy".

• israel
• palestine
• eilat
• suicide
• bombing
• palestinian
• infighting