The Islamic Jihad (Holy War) criticized on Thursday Israeli threats to strike the infrastructure of his group following Monday's suicide bombing in Israel.

"The Israeli threats are in tune with the American plans of striking the resistance by military force," Sheikh Nafez Azzam of the Islamic Jihad told reporters in Gaza.

Azzam's remarks came following a report by Israeli daily Ha' aretz, saying that imminent military action would be carried out against the Islamic Jihad which dispatched a suicide bomber to Israel's Eilat, killing three people.

On Monday morning, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bakery in Eilat, some 350 km south of Jerusalem, killing three local Israelis.

Besides the Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed wing of Fatah movement, and the previously unknown "Army of Believers" claimed responsibility for the attack.

Eilat bombing marked the first such violation of the ceasefire deal that was agreed to between Israel and the Palestinians last November.

Azzam slammed "conflicting Israeli statements to hit the resistance in Gaza while maintaining the ceasefire at the same time."

Source: Xinhua