Hamas takes responsibility for attack, says bombers came from Hebron

Lyubov Razdolskaya was killed and 11 people were injured in a double suicide bombing in a Dimona shopping center yesterday morning. One bomber died in the blast, and the other was shot dead by a police officer.

Hamas officially claimed responsibility for the attack and alleged that the bombers came to Dimona from Hebron. Several other Palestinian groups, whose credibility Israel doubts, also claimed responsibility.

The Shin Bet were not revealing any details about the investigation into the affair, but security sources said it was unclear whether the suicide bombers had arrived from the Gaza Strip, as some Palestinian sources said.

However, the number of organizations taking credit for the bombing suggests that several groups sent suicide bombers to the Negev via Sinai, the sources said. It is possible that some terrorists had been stopped by Egyptian troops.

Defense sources said they were concerned by Hamas' increased self-confidence following its toppling the wall between the Gaza Strip and Rafah two weeks ago. They said Hamas' taking credit for the suicide bombing was a departure from its official line in the last two years.

The explosion took place at about 10:30 A.M. in Dimona's shopping center shortly after the two suicide bombers arrived, near Shahar's mixed-nuts store.

The second bomber had apparently been knocked out by the force of the first blast, and was about to detonate his own belt when rescue teams noticed the explosives and alerted police, who shot him at point blank.

"I saw the terrorist on the ground," said Kobi Mor, the commander of a police unit charged with catching smugglers along the southern border. "I shot him, then I saw his hand twitching."

Mor realized that the man was trying to detonate his bomb. "I kneeled and shot him in the head," he said.

"I was in the parking lot nearby when I heard the explosion," said David Avitan. "I ran toward it and saw a young woman on the ground with her legs cut off. We saw the suicide bomber. A police officer shot him at least 15 times."

He said they then began to evacuate the injured people. "We wanted to get them out before the second one exploded," Avitan said.

Shalom Prienta, a taxi driver, had just dropped a client off near the nuts store when the bomb exploded.

"I saw people fleeing; pieces of human flesh [landed] on my car," he said.

Magen David Adom paramedic Nissim Karkliker arrived almost immediately.

"There was smoke, pieces of bodies, people who were killed and injured in various degrees," said Karkliker. "We knew the [second] bomb wasn't neutralized yet."

Perla Atar was sitting in a nearby pizzeria when the bomb went off.

"I had just ordered a drink when the explosion took place," Atar said. "I ran to the site and saw Maurice, a friend of mine, injured. There were arms and legs and limbs thrown on the floor."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Dimona but refused to talk to the media. He met with Mayor Meir Cohen, and promised him that by 2010 a fence separating Israel from Egypt would be built.

"Dimona is awakening to a new reality today," Cohen said. "The border must be hermetically closed. The Negev towns had been tranquil, believing such things could not happen here. This tranquility is over."

Security forces had been on high alert due to fears that the breach in the border fence between Gaza and Egypt would lead to an increase in terrorist attacks against Israel.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were among those claiming credit for the attacks.

A Fatah source said yesterday that the "Army of Palestine" wing of Al-Aqsa had carried out the attack, along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The group's spokesman said the two suicide bombers were Luay Laghwani, 22, from the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza, and Musa Khalil Arafat, 24, from Abasan village near Khan Yunis.

The spokesman emphasized that the two came from Gaza. Later a video recording of the two reading their wills was released in the names of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP. However, earlier in the day, different names had been released for the terrorists.

Yellow Fatah flags flew outside the Gaza home of Laghwani, and Al Aqsa gunmen fired in the air in tribute to him. His sobbing mother, Ibtissam, held up a picture of him as a young teenager.

The border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip was reopened last evening, and Egyptian troops are allowing free passage, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

A Palestinian man was killed and at least 44 Gazans and Egyptians were wounded yesterday in an exchange of fire that erupted between masked Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces at Gaza's border with Egypt, Palestinian medical officials said.

Egyptian forces resealed the border on Sunday.

The tensions began when the Egyptian guards hermetically sealed the border yesterday, not even allowing Egyptians and Gazans who had found themselves on the wrong side of the border to return home.

Witnesses said anger boiled over in the late afternoon, as people on both sides waited for permission to cross over. Gazans started throwing stones at the Egyptians, and Hamas did not interfere.

Youths began pelting an Egyptian command post in the area, and forces there first threw stones back, and then fired tear gas. Medics said 26 people were treated for tear gas inhalation.