VOA常速英语2008年-Israel Beefs Up Security After Suicide Bombing

Israeli security forces are on high alert after the first suicide bombing in a year, which took place Monday in southern Israel.  As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, Israel is considering a number of options in response to the attack.

Israeli police and soldiers have beefed up patrols in crowded public places such as bus stations and malls.  There are warnings that more Palestinian militants² have infiltrated³ Israel after the first suicide bombing in the desert town of Dimona.

One Israeli was killed in the attack, but it could have been much worse.  A second Palestinian bomber⁴ was killed by police before he could detonate the explosives strapped⁵ to his body.

Police are investigating claims by militant¹ Palestinian groups that the bombers⁶ infiltrated Israel from the unfenced border with the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.  They are said to have crossed into Egypt after militants destroyed the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt two weeks ago.  That enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to cross into Egypt unchecked.

Israeli Cabinet ministers will meet Wednesday to discuss building a fence on the porous⁷, 250-kilometer border with Egypt.

Cabinet Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer says a fence is a necessity now that the Gaza-Egypt border has been breached⁸.  He told Israel Radio that the fence could be completed in a year.

The Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, was one of the Palestinian organizations that claimed responsibility for the bombing.  It was the first such claim by Hamas since 2004, and it prompted this threat from Israeli parliamentarian Tzahi Hanegbi.

Hanegbi, who heads parliament's influential⁹ Foreign Affairs and Defense¹⁰ Committee, said Israel should assassinate¹¹ the political leaders of Hamas.  He told Israel Radio that assassinations¹² have been an effective deterrent¹³ in the past, and he said, no Hamas leader should be immune.

Hamas brushed off the threats.  The group said it would not be intimidated¹⁴ by what it described as Israeli "terrorism and crimes."