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As a massive blast ripped through a bakery in Israel's southern city of Eilat Monday morning and killed three local people, a nine-month quietness free of suicide bombing in the Jewish state has ended.

This is the first suicide attack ever happened in Eilat, a peaceful Red Sea resort city for both Israeli and foreigners.

Israel suffers far-reaching losses

Apart from the casualties, Israel bears a much heavier loss than what was initially expected. Once again, despite Israel's utmost efforts to curb the Palestinian militants attack, security situation deteriorates in Israel.

The bombing came only weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eased restrictions of movement and dismantled a number of checkpoints to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Both Olmert and the Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have pledged to make great efforts in reviving the peace negotiation.

Nevertheless, in response to the attack, Israeli right-wing parties called on the government to adopt a tougher policy with regards to the Palestinians.

Right-wing Knesset (parliament) member (MK) Arieh Eldad from National Union-NRP said he hoped the attack would "bring sanity back to all those who call for negotiating with Hamas and strengthening Abbas."

Likud MK Yisrael Katz urged the government to immediately stop the transfer of arms to Fatah, saying "the attack in Eilat serves as a warning sign to those who believe in the ceasefire with the Palestinians."

Despite a stepped-up pressure, Israeli government officials refrained from promising immediate retaliations, because of the forthcoming Quartet meeting.

The attack occurred only four days before the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators were to meet in Washington as part of a renewed effort to reactivate Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Amid the world calls for Mideast peace, Israel has no many options for significant military retaliation, but only said that it would collect intelligence and found the origin of the attack.

Although both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed to continue Israel's fight against Palestinian militants, Peretz said that Israel would do everything it can to preserve the Gaza Strip cease-fire declared last November.

Israel's tourism industry also suffered a major blow by Monday's attack, which has already been hit hard by hotel and travel agency cancellations in the aftermath of the Lebanon war last year.

Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea, is popular with both Israelis and foreign tourists and has been free of violence in the past. Nearly 180,000 foreign tourists visited the resort last year.

At present, what Israeli officials indeed should do is to prove to the world that it is still safe to come to this country.

Avert factional guns toward joint enemy?

Meanwhile, as the Palestinians have been on the edge of civil war with bloody bout of factional fighting between rival Hamas and Fatah, the suicide bombing in Eilat might be beneficial for a reconciliation between the two rivals.

Just like what Islamic Jihad (Holy War) has said, the attack was meant to help bring an end to weeks-long Hamas-Fatah clashes, which has killed 60 Palestinian in the Gaza Strip since December last year.

No matter whether Israel chooses to resort to military retaliation, the Palestinians are reminded again that they still have a joint enemy at next door.

Hamas saw the point quite clearly, so it defended the attack as a "natural response" to Israel's military assaults in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Israel's ongoing boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

"So long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, adding that attacks on Israel were preferable to the Gaza street fights between Hamas and Fatah gunmen. "The right thing is for Fatah weapons to be directed toward the occupation not toward Hamas," he added.

But whether such strategy could really work is still in question. Despite all these statements, fighting between Fatah and Hamas continued in Gaza, with five more people were killed on Monday.

The five-day refreshed fighting starting from Thursday has claimed 32 Palestinian lives.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)