Hamas claims suicide attack as Israel kills nine in Gaza

Israel killed nine Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip yesterday and the Islamist group's armed wing issued a formal statement claiming responsibility for its first suicide bombing in Israel since 2004.

Seven of the Hamas men were killed by an Israeli air strike on a security compound in southern Gaza and two other armed members of the movement were shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the border with Egypt.

Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement claiming "full responsibility" for Monday's suicide bombing in the southern Israeli desert town of Dimona. An Israeli woman was killed along with a Palestinian suicide bomber and another attacker who was shot dead by police.

Hamas identified the two attackers as Mohammed el-Herbawi and Shadi Zoghbor, both from the West Bank city of Hebron. A Hamas source said on Monday that the group was responsible for the Dimona attack but a formal statement was not issued until yesterday.

"I never expected Mohammed to carry out a martyrdom attack. He was quiet and normal. I was shocked when I saw his name on television," his weeping mother, Um Samer, said.

Hamas's claim of responsibility, and the sound of Israeli jets and drones overhead, raised fears in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip of an intensive Israeli military campaign in retaliation for Monday's bombing.

A senior member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's party, Tzachi Hanegbi, urged the Israeli government to step up its fight against Hamas, which took over Gaza in June, by assassinating the group's political leaders.

Hamas officials said the men killed in the security compound were holding afternoon prayers when the missile struck. The Israeli military said the air strike was in response to Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.