p> At least one person was killed Monday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a southern Israeli shopping mall, the Jewish state's first such bombing in more than a year. -
A second bomber was shot and killed before he blew himself up, said officials.
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One Israeli woman was killed and more than a dozen people were injured in the attack in the desert town of Dimona.
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A spokesperson for the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said the two bombers entered Israel from Egypt after a section of a wall separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt was blown open last month.
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Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the group, which is a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, said the operation had been planned for a month.
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Fouad said the group initially said the attackers were from the West Bank as a diversionary tactic because they didn't know if the second attacker was still alive. Once they confirmed he was dead, they announced that they were from Gaza.
Fatah denies involvement
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Israeli police said the first bomber was killed in the blast and the second bomber was shot and killed by an off-duty Israeli police officer. Officials believe the second bomber was waiting until a crowd had gathered before setting off his bomb, said CBC reporter Peter Armstrong.
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Israeli media broadcast news of the attack, showing shocked bystanders, ambulances and rescue workers.
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In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, gunmen fired their weapons into the air to celebrate the attack while Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha praised the bombing.
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A Fatah official in the West Bank denied any involvement in the blast, reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Fatah's Western-backed leader, Abbas, is involved in peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
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Fatah runs the West Bank while Hamas has control of Gaza.
S. Israel on alert
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Southern Israel has been on alert against militant attacks in recent days since members of the militant Hamas organization breached the border with Egypt on Jan. 23. Egypt resealed the border on Sunday.
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Israel temporarily closed its Gaza borders on Jan. 18 after increased Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. Palestinians say they ramped up their attacks in response to intensified Israeli raids. The border closures blocked deliveries of fuel, food and other supplies to the roughly 1.5 million Gazans.
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Less than a week after the borders were shut, masked Palestinian militants blew several holes in the 11-kilometre metal wall running through the town of Rafah. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians climbed over the wreckage into Egypt, returning with fuel and food, along with items such as motorcycles, carpets, cleaning supplies, crates of cola and even televisions.
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The breach made Israel's Negev desert, where Dimona is located, more vulnerable to penetration by Palestinian militants who could enter through Egypt's Sinai desert. Dimona is about 64 kilometres northeast of the porous Egyptian border. Last week, Israel closed a number of popular hiking areas in the south for fear of militant attacks.
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The last suicide bombing within Israel was on Jan. 29, 2007. Three Israelis were killed in that attack at a bakery in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
With files from the Associated Press