Terror Attack in Eilat - Three Dead

Israellycool is following the story from within Israel. As he notes, this is the first suicide bombing in Eilat.

Terror Attack in Eilat

A palestinian suicide bomber has murdered two people after blowing himself up in an Eilat bakery.

I guess the palestinians got bored of just killing each other.

Both Islamic Jihad and "moderate" Mahmoud's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have both scrambled to claim responsibility for this latest atrocity. There's no PR quite like maiming and killing Jews.

This marks the first ever suicide bombing in Eilat, and the first suicide bombing in Israel since last April.

Updates (Israel time):

1:17PM: It's now 3 dead.

2:03PM: A witness has described the scene:

"We were sitting and drinking coffee some five meters from the site....Suddenly we heard a large explosion and I immediately thought that it was a suicide bomber.

"When we went outside we saw that the place had been destroyed and there were body parts everywhere.."

And there is also this description from another witness:

"It was awful - there was smoke, pieces of flesh all over the place," he said.

He told Israel Radio that he saw "a man with a black coat and a bag. For Eilat, where it is hot, it is strange to see someone walking with a coat. I said to myself, 'Why is this idiot dressed that way?' Seconds later, I heard a huge blast. The building shook."

3:55PM: The bomber has been identified as 21-year-old Mohammed Faisal al-Saqsaq, who certainly lived up to his name by sucking in the slang sense of the word.

And it would seem that Saqsaq f*cked up (thank goodness).

Investigations into Monday morning's suicide bombing in Eilat, the first to strike Israel's southernmost city, indicated that the 21-year-old bomber (Muhammed Faisal al-Saksak, a resident of the Gaza Strip and member of the Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs Brigades) may not have intended to detonate his explosives pack in a bakery, but planned to execute the attack in a more crowded area.

According to reports by security sources, at least two local residents had spotted Saksak, whose heavy coat and large bag aroused their suspicions, and called the police. Channel 2 reported that one of the people who alerted local police was the taxi driver who took Saksak into town.

Saksak, who appeared to have stopped at the bakery for coffee before reaching his final destination, blew himself up after he saw the police cars approaching.

3:57PM: You might want to keep this in mind if we demolish his family's house:

"We knew that he was going to carry out a martyrdom operation," Saqsaq's brother, Naeem, told reporters at the family home in the northern Gaza Strip. "His mother and father prayed for him to succeed."