A Suicide bomber attacked a bakery in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat on Monday, killing himself and three people, police said. It was the first suicide attack in Israel in nine months.Islamic Jihad, a radical Palestinian group that has carried out dozens of suicide attacks, claimed responsibility. A spokesman for the group said that the attacker came from the West Bank, but gave no other details. The bomber struck a small bakery in a residential neighborhood. Shattered glass was visible on the sidewalk outside, alongside bread trays.Police cordoned off the area, and Bruno Stein, Eilat’s police commander, said the police believed there could be more bombers in the city. Israeli emergency services raised their alert level to the highest. Police initially suspected the blast was either an accident or criminal incident. The attack was the first suicide attack in Eilat, which is distant from Israel’s major population centres and has been largely insulated from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also was the first suicide bombing in Israel since last April, when a bomber struck a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 10. Suicide bombings in Israel are sharply down from their height four years ago, when hundreds of Israelis were killed in dozens of attacks. A renewal of such violence could derail current efforts by the US, Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew the long-stalled peace talks.Eilat is located on the Red Sea near the Jordanian and Egyptian border, and al-Qaeda operatives have been active in both neighbouring countries. However, there was no indication the group was involved in Monday’s attack.The Israel-Egypt border, which runs near Eilat, is regularly crossed by smugglers entering Israel, say police. Though smugglers generally bring drugs and prostitutes, local officials said the bomber may have used the smuggling route to cross from Egypt.
