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One woman was killed and 38 people people were wounded, one critically, in a suicide attack in a Dimona commercial center Monday morning.

Police said the attack was carried out by two attackers, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other terrorist was killed – seconds before he could detonate his explosives belt – by Kobi Mor, a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene.

Magen David Adom ambulances evacuated the wounded to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Rosa Elberg, a resident of the town, said that the bomber detonated his explosives inside a café.

“It is like a war, people are running like crazy,” she told Channel 2. “I didn’t see anyone suspicious. I heard a boom and my ears are still ringing.”

Another eyewitness told Israel Radio that many people were at the commercial center at the time because of the sunny weather.

Shalom Bar Avi, a journalist speaking to Channel 10, said “I am here no longer as a journalist but as a simple citizen… I pray and hope my wife is okay.”

Bar Avi praised the police’s quick response to the attack, and said Mor, the officer who identified the second attacker shot “four or five times… he took no chances.”

Later Mor’s heroism was revealed in detail: He shot the terrorist in the head, and when the latter in his last breath still tried to press the detonator button, shot him four more times and killed him. Mor managed to kill the terrorist before he could explode and without hitting his explosive belt, thus preventing a much more devastating attack.

A police officer speaking to Channel 10 praised Mor’s quick response and said he acted “in the best possible way, all considerations taken into account.”

The two bombers entered Israel from Egypt after Hamas blew up the Gaza-Egypt border wall, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades said.

Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the Fatah-linked organization, said the operation had been planned for a month, but was made possible after Hamas violently opened Gaza’s border with Egypt on January 23.

Earlier, in an apparent attempt to divert attention from the Gaza connection, Al Aqsa had claimed the bombers were from the West Bank.

Southern Israel has been on alert against terror attacks since Hamas breached the border with Egypt.

The last suicide attacker to succeed in penetrating Israel and detonate his explosives was Muhammad Faisal Saksak, on January 29, 2007 in Eilat.

Three people were killed in that attack.

Details on wounded evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba can be received by phone on 1255-177.

AP contributed to this report