Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip managed to carry out a suicide bombing in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat on Monday - more than 100 miles away from his home.

The attack on a bakery killed three Israelis and apparently was intended to remind Palestinians who they should be fighting instead of each other.

Palestinian infighting escalated over the weekend, as the Hamas-Fatah power struggle continues. Some 30 Palestinians have been killed in the last five days.

According to the Islamic Jihad terror group, the bomber was 21-year-old Mohammed Faisal al-Saqsaq from the Gaza Strip.

Three groups claimed responsibility for the attack including Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades - the armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, and a previously unknown group called the Army of Believers.

The attack comes at a time when Palestinian groups are supposed to be observing a ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad said the bombing signaled the intent of the "Palestinian resistance" to continue jihad "until all Palestinian lands are freed." (Islamic Jihad, like Hamas, calls for an Islamic Palestinian state to be established in all the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel.)

Hamas called it a "response" to Israeli military policies.

A Fatah spokesman, Ahmad Abdul Rahman, said his group condemned any attack "that targets civilians, Israelis or Palestinians."

Palestinian expert Yohanan Tzoreff, from the International Policy Institute on Counter-Terrorism, said Israel has known for a long time that when are "internal clashes" erupt between Palestinian factions, they will use attacks against Israel to try to put an end to it.

If Israel reacts, then it could unite the Palestinians to fight Israel, Tzoreff said by telephone.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suicide bomber made his way to the Sinai Desert and followed the Egyptian border more than 100 miles to nearby Eilat, where he infiltrated into Israel.

An unsuspecting Israeli picked up the bomber as a hitchhiker, but became suspicious of him, Rosenfeld said.

The driver phoned police immediately after dropping off the terrorist in an Eilat neighborhood. Police were dispatched to search for him but in the meantime he blew himself up in a bakery, Rosenfeld added.

Palestinians can cross freely into Egypt from the Gaza Strip, under to security arrangements put in place by an agreement negotiated by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in late 2005.

The Israeli-Egyptian border, which runs along the Sinai Desert, is virtually open, without a fence, although there is an Israeli border patrol to prevent smuggling, said Rosenfeld.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said it's clear that Israelis still face a "very real terrorist threat." The government must take the threat seriously and act to defend its citizens, he said.

"The Palestinian Authority government is run by a terrorist organization [Hamas], and that government is part of the problem and not the solution," Regev said.

The United States strongly condemned the attack and said it was up to the P.A. government to prevent terror attacks.

"Failure to act against terror will inevitably affect relations between that government and the international community and undermine the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own," the U.S. said in a statement.

The attack comes just a few days before the international Quartet - the U.S., European Union, Russia and United Nations - is due to meet in Washington to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Rice was recently in the region and met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to find a way to move the Israeli-Palestinian process forward.

(The day before she arrived in the region, Abbas called on Palestinian supporters to point their guns at Israel and not each other.)

Regev said that the basis of any Middle East peace process must be a "no-tolerance policy on terrorism."

Monday's terrorist attack was the first "successful" suicide bombing against Israelis since April when a suicide bomber shattered the Passover holiday in Tel Aviv, killing eleven people, including an American teenager.

In March, a Palestinian disguised as a religious Jew hitched a ride with a couple traveling in the West Bank and blew up their car, killing four Israelis.

Eilat, which also borders Jordan and is about 20 miles from Saudi Arabia, has escaped major terror attacks until now.

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