Israel faced its first terrorist attack in a year when two men attempted a suicide bombing in Dimona, a small town generally considered a backwater by cosmopolitan Israelis. Both bombers wore explosive-packed belts; one exploded. The Israeli authorities shot the second bomber. One woman was killed and 38 were wounded.

Dimona residents and the Fatah leadership shared the original view that the men were from Gaza, near the Egyptian border. The al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, a group associated with Fatah, claimed responsibility and also said that the bombers were from Gaza, and crossed into Israel from Egypt.

However, Israel security has begun to conclude that the men were from the West Bank town of Hebron. While investigators collect facts on the ground, opinions about what the bombing signals about intra-Palestinian relations and, of course, what will happen to the recently reignited Israeli-Palestinian talks. Israel maintains that it will continue talks with the Palestinians by way of President Abbas.

Lamis Andoni of Al-Jazeera offers that the bombing, which was not sanctioned by Fatah nor sponsored by rival group Hamas, indicated that "groups outside of Gaza are now entering the Israel-Hamas conflict." Israel cut basic supply deliveries to Gaza in late January in response to rocket and mortar fire into Israel, which it has been argued served as unwarranted collective punishment of Gaza civilians, several dozen of whom have died since the cutoffs. These circumstances would undoubtedly play a part in contributing to more violence. Andoni concludes that:

The attack itself could still be an isolated accident, but it is not isolated in its expression of a building Palestinian rebellion - reminiscent of the actions that led to the 1987 and 2000 uprisings.

The difference today is that Palestinians not only have to grapple with the separation wall but must also challenge the internal walls that divide them.

This could transform the stirrings of a popular uprising into an outburst of anger without vision and political leadership.

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