OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, October 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel Friday, October 8, blamed Al-Qaeda network for a series of anti-Israeli bomb attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula that left at least 19 Israelis dead and another 38 missing.

“According to our first information, it appears to be an international terror attack with the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda,” Israel's deputy defense minister Zeev Boim said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom echoed the accusations and told army radio: “Al-Qaeda threatens all the countries, including Arab ones that according to it have close relations with Israel or the Western world.”

“This would explain the recent attacks in Morocco, Istanbul or Riyadh,” Shalom said of a series of deadly bombings in those cities.

“The struggle against terrorism is worldwide and we are far from having won it because organizations, not States, are behind it.”

The attacks occurred late Thursday as the Red Sea coast of the southern Sinai was packed with Israeli holidaymakers celebrating the final day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Responsibility Claim

Meanwhile, a group calling itself “Islamic Unity Brigades” claimed responsibility Friday for the series of bombings targeting Israeli tourists.

“Four of your martyrdom-seeking brothers (bombers) carried out this heroic operation... against a den of prostitution and corruption,” said a statement posted on an Islamist website whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

The previously unknown group said the attack was in revenge for Israel's assassination last March of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, and was “the first direct shot in the face of Jews.”

The blows “will not stop until those infidels are driven out of the land of Islam,” said the statement, which blasted the “collaborator Egyptian regime” for opening its country to “every infidel and debauchee.”

Israelis Flock Home  

Israelis hurried back home after the blasts

As an immediate reaction to the blasts, thousands of Israelis Friday fled back across the border from Egypt.

“We're scared. We no longer need to stay here,” said one Israeli woman who had hired a taxi to get her back “to Israel as fast as possible,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Her seven traveling companions had mobile telephones glued to their ears as they tried to reassure worried relatives.

Israel's public radio and medics said Friday that 26 people had been killed in the bomb attacks.

Dozens of Israeli-registered cars packed with want-away holidaymakers queued up at the Taba border point between Egypt and Israel, crossing back into the nearby Israeli resort town of Eilat at an average of five cars a minute.

“There is a plan to send buses to help them evacuate, those who want to,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Rachel Shani said, quoted by the online version of Ha’aretz daily.

Israeli media reported that many tourists were also walking the few hundred meters (yards) from the Hilton to the border crossing, which already had extra staff working to cope with a larger flow of Israeli tourists traveling to spend Sukkot holidays in Egypt.

World Condemnation

In the meantime, the blasts were condemned by world leaders.

In Moscow, Russia condemned the bombings, calling on the international community to unite in the fight against terror.

Branding the attacks a “criminal and well planned extremist move,” the foreign ministry said the blasts “confirm the need for the international community to rally forces to effectively battle this universal evil.”

In a statement, the foreign ministry expressed its condolences to the victims' families and friends around the world.

One Russian was killed and eight were injured in the bomb blasts, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

“According to information so far... one person has died,” the statement said. “The eight injured are being treated in medical institutions in... (Egypt) and in Israel's Eilat.”

In Rabat, King Mohammed VI of Morocco also strongly condemned the bomb attacks.

“We strongly condemn these tragic events, whatever their cause,” the king said in a message to Mubarak.

“I learned with deep pain and distress the sad news of the terrifying explosions that shook (the tourist resort) Taba,” he said in the message quoted by the press agency MAP.

In Hanoi, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also blasted the “barbaric” series of anti-Israeli bombings in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

“Attacks of this kind are the most barbaric because women and children are among the victims,” he told reporters in Hanoi where he was attending a summit of Asian and European leaders.

“There is no other solution to peace in the Middle East than what is laid out in the roadmap for peace. Despite all this brutality we have to continue to pursue this goal,” Schroeder added.

The German leader also said the attacks underscored the need for a united front in the fight against terrorism: “We, as the international community, must fight terrorism wherever it occurs.”

French President Jacque Chirac also condemned the attacks.