Suicide Bombing

[Ironduke]

Israeli killed in suicide bombing

An Israeli woman has been killed in a suicide bombing in the southern town of Dimona, in the first such attack by Palestinian militants in over a year.

The attacker detonated an explosives belt at a shopping centre. Police shot dead an accomplice wounded in the blast before he could detonate his own belt.

It is unclear if the militants, from Gaza, reached Israel via Egypt.

Thousands of Gaza residents surged into Egypt last month when militants blew up the border wall.

The border was finally sealed by Egyptian forces on Sunday, but not before huge crowds of besieged Gazans crossed unchecked into Egypt where they stocked up on much-needed supplies.

Israel had warned that Gaza-based militants could take advantage of the chaos to infiltrate its territory across the long and porous desert border between Egypt's Sinai peninsula and the Negev Desert.

Meanwhile several people are reported to have been injured by gunfire following clashes between Egyptian guards and Palestinians at the Gaza-Egypt border.

The source of the gunfire is not clear but witnesses said youths were throwing stones at an Egyptian checkpoint before shooting broke out.

Read more here: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israeli killed in suicide bombing

[gunnut]

I saw the video on Fox News. The 2nd bomber was injured during the first blast. He was lying on the ground and started to reach for his belt. A security personel pull his pistol and shot him dead. That was pretty intense when people started yelling about a 2nd bomber still alive with a bomb belt on his waist, and then a mass stampede away from the said bomber.

[Ironduke]

I'm sure these bombers crossed the Egyptian border and not the Gazan one. Wonder if anymore suicide bombers slipped through.

[Stan187]

I'm sure these bombers crossed the Egyptian border and not the Gazan one. Wonder if anymore suicide bombers slipped through.

I think it was claimed that the bomber was from Hebron, I don't know if that is verified or not.

[Ironduke]

The Israeli response:

Israel launches deadly Gaza raids

Israeli forces have killed at least five armed members of the Palestinian movement Hamas, as well as another gunman and a teacher, in raids in Gaza.

Witnesses said Israeli troops backed by tanks and aircraft launched an incursion near Jabaliya sparking clashes with gunmen.

The teacher, 38, was killed when a surface-to-surface missile hit a school in Beit Hanoun in a separate raid.

There are no reports of Israeli casualties in the engagements.

Israel has stepped up military action against Hamas since it claimed responsibility for Monday's suicide bombing in Dimona - its first in Israel since 2004.

Hamas said an armed member of Islamic Jihad was killed along with its five members in fighting with the Israeli troops.

Three pupils, all aged 16, were also wounded when the Israeli missile hit the school, hospital and education ministry officials said.

"What was the fault of a teacher, an emissary on a sacred mission?" the ministry said in a statement.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said troops had not targeted the school but had fired on a Palestinian rocket crew.

The army is checking whether the building was hit by a stray missile, she said.

Hamas says it has fired 40 rockets and 60 mortars at southern Israel since the new upsurge in fighting began with a deadly Israeli airstrike on Tuesday afternoon which killed seven Hamas security force members.

Correspondents say the violence threatens to overwhelm renewed peacemaking efforts spearheaded by the leader of Hamas's factional rival Fatah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas, does not recognise Israel and opposes the peace process. It ousted Mr Abbas's forces from Gaza in June, but he remains in control of Palestinian-administered parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Source: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel launches deadly Gaza raids