Dimona blast scene
Photo: AFP
Mystery solved: The two Palestinians who were initially said to have carried out the recent terror attack in the southern town of Dimona are alive and well in an Egyptian prison, Ynet has learned.
The two groups also published a videotape featuring the two supposed suicide bombers. In the tape, the two Gaza men indicate that they intend to blow themselves up in Israel.
The attack, which occurred about three weeks ago, claimed the life of one woman and wounded 10 people. A short time after the bombing, two groups claimed responsibility for the attack: the Popular Front's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and the Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Terror Attack
Ali Waked and AP
Organization announces its men carried out suicide bombing in Dimona on Monday. In text messages to journalists and on Hamas' TV, group says attackers came from West Bank city of Hebron
However, a short while later Israeli security officials raised doubts regarding the bombers' identity, after photographs of the Dimona bombing site failed to match the videotape. A day later, Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and said that the two bombers came from the West Bank town of Hebron.
Hamas negotiating with Egyptian authorities
Following the bombing, question marks persisted regarding the fate of the two men featured in the videotape. The Palestinians wondered whether the two were detained or eliminated by Israel or Egypt, or whether they were still at large and planning to carry out another attack.However, Ynet has learned that Egyptian authorities informed the Popular Front that the two Gazans are in fact imprisoned in Egypt after they were arrested near the border. The Palestinian source who reported the information refused to say whether Egypt was planning to release the two.
In an unrelated development, Hamas is reportedly engaged in contacts with Egyptian authorities aimed at securing the release of dozens of group members arrested by Egypt following the Rafah border breach.