The Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility on Monday for Sunday's bombing at an Israeli bus station in which 50 Israelis were wounded.
The attack, which happened during rush hour in the southern Israeli town of Beer Sheva, was the first such incident since Israel removed its settlements from the Gaza Strip.
Islamic Jihad announced that the attack was in response to the killing of five Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank town of Tulkarem on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned both the attack in Beer Sheva as well as Israel's raid last Thursday in a statement issued by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, urging all sides to show restraint.
Abbas has said he prefers to co-opt gunmen into the Palestinian security services and political system rather than dismantle them, which the US and Israel have both called for.
Meanwhile on Monday, Palestinian sources report that an accidental explosion in the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus reportedly killed a 40-year-old Palestinian man and his 14-year-old son.
The father and son were using a blowtorch to cut into an old Israeli army shell left in a pile of scrap metal when the gas canister fueling the blowtorch exploded.
The two made a living scavenging for scrap metal and iron.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
