Israel closes Taba crossing to Egyptian Sinai after first suicide bombing attack in Eilat kills three Israelis Monday, Jan 29
Although two Palestinian groups – Jihad Islami and Fatah-al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed the attack in a bakery in the Red Sea resort - DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report the mounting suspicion that it was a joint operation by the third group, the Army of Believers – an al Qaeda cover name – and Jihad Islami. This Palestinian group later named the bomber as Mohamed Faisal al-Sahsah, 21, from Gaza, claiming he entered Israel from Jordan. DEBKAfile’s sources believe this is an attempt to divert attention from the Jihad-al Qaeda collaboration. Jihad and al Qaeda cells based in Egypt and Sinai are feared to be embarking on a new suicide campaign inside Israel.
The Taba crossing to Sinai is closed and a terror alert has been declared in all parts of Israel following the Eilat attack. Saturday, a 17-year old from Alexandria, where an al Qaeda cell is believed located, was apprehended in Sinai heading for a suicide bombing in Israel. The Egyptian-Israeli border is wide open to smugglers, terrorists and arms traffickers. The explosive charge the Eilat bomber carried was packed with up to 8 kilos of explosives, but no shrapnel fragments. In its Sinai attacks, Al Qaeda has used large bombs consisting of explosives but no shrapnel, whereas Palestinian terrorists habitually lace their bombs with steel shards to maximize casualties.
The bomber is thought to have crossed from Gaza into Sinai, collected the explosive charge and then infiltrated Israel....
And also from DEBKAfile: January 29, 2007, 2:28 PM (GMT+02:00) ...
Fingerprints of Palestinian Jihad Islami terrorist ace Muhamed al Hindi on Eilat suicide bombing
Mohamed al Hindi, Jihad Islami leader
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that the Jihad Islami leader returned to the Gaza Strip on Jan 19 after a six-month absence in Damascus, Beirut and Tehran, during which his Syrian and Iranian masters appointed him chief of the organization in place of Abdallah Ramadan Shelah.
He arrived in Gaza carrying a large sum of cash allocated by the two governments for building a new terrorist militia in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Sinai in conjunction with al Qaeda. The Islami Jihad plans to reinvent itself from an underground terrorist group to a military militia, like the Hamas special force. None of the authorities controlling the border terminal to the Gaza Strip, Israeli, Egyptian or European, interfered with al Hindi’s entry.
In Damascus and Beirut, the Jihad leader consulted with Qaeda elements operating in the Palestinian camps of Lebanon, under the title Fatah-Brigades of the Islamic Sword, the coming terror campaign against Israel. The Lebanon-based al Qaeda network maintains close operational ties with al Qaeda’s Gaza cell, which calls itself the Islamic Army and which participated in the kidnap of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit last June. The Islamic Army holds joint custody over the Israeli captive with Hamas. In his exchanges, al Hindi most likely worked on the details of the Eilat suicide bombing.
DEBKAfile adds: ... Israel’s non-interference in Gaza’s affairs leaves the field clear for Palestinian and jihadist terrorists to use the Gaza Strip as a base and haven for more attacks in Israel like Eilat’s first suicide bombing Monday, Jan. 29, which left three Israelis dead – not to speak of missile attacks against Israeli civilian locations.
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