Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to maintain the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, and will not respond to Monday's suicide bombing in Eilat with a broad military offensive, aides said Monday night. The attack in the southern resort town claimed the lives of three Israelis, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
Israeli warplanes early Tuesday attacked a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip that the army said was designed to transport Palestinian activists into Israel to carry out an imminent attack. "There was an aerial attack on a tunnel near the Karni crossing, which was going to be used for attacks against Israeli citizens in the immediate future," an army spokesman said.
The attack on the tunnel, near the Karni crossing, was authorized by the political echelon, the Israeli army said, according to the newspaper. This was Israel's first aerial attack on the Gaza Strip since the cease-fire was declared in November 2006.
Olmert met with Defense Minister Amir Peretz and senior security officials Monday in order to evaluate the ways in which Israel might respond following the attack. The bombing was carried out by an Islamic Jihad member.
The attacker was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby daughter and driven to avenge his best friend's killing by Israeli troops, relatives told AFP.
Dozens of neighbors celebrated outside 20-year-old Mohammed Siksik's house after the attack in Eilat. Inside, his mother greeted mourners with a smile.
"He told me: 'Meeting God is better for me than this whole world,'" said Rowayda Siksik. She added her son told her only that he was going to carry out an operation inside Israel. "He said, 'Goodbye, I am going, mother. Forgive me.' I told him, 'God be with you.'"
