In
Beersheba (Hebrew for Arabic Beir Saba'), the two buses simultaneously
exploded bursting into flames near a main intersection in the center
of the southern city, 25 miles west of Gaza City, leaving at least 15
people dead and more than 80 others injured.
Israel
TV showed the two burned-out buses, flames flowing through the roof of
one of them. At least two bodies, covered in white sheets, lay on the
ground — apparently those of the attackers.
There
were reports about a third explosion near a shopping center in the
city after the initial blasts, but Israeli police said it was a false
alarm, Israeli private television reported.
The
explosions are the first major Palestinian attack inside Israel in
nearly six months.
Palestinian
fighters haven't carried out a major attack inside Israel since March
14, when 11 people were killed in the port of Ashdod.
'Natural
Response'
The
two blasts were widely hailed by Hamas officials and other Palestinian
factions, who said the attacks are "normal response" to
Israeli army’s provocations of assassinations and incursions.
"The
operations are a natural response to the Israeli army crimes, which
even targeted women and children," Hamas spokesman in Gaza Mushir
Al-Misri told IslamOnline.net.
"Palestinians
have the right to defend themselves in all ways and acts of resistance
– which have grown more sophisticated," Al-Misri added.
Abu
Qusay, the spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing
of Fatah, was of the same mind.
"We
definitely agree the Tuesday blasts are a natural response coming at
the appropriate time," he told IOL.
Rabah
Muhana of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
said the Palestinians resistance "scored a win" with Tuesday
attacks despite the rising Israeli army wave targeting resistance
fighters.
The
explosions came a few hours after Palestinian medical sources were
quoted by AFP as saying a teenage Palestinian was killed in the early
hours by Israeli troops during an incursion into the Rafah refugee
camp in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Mazem
Al Agah, 14, was killed by machine-gunfire from a tank, the sources
said, as armored vehicles and two bulldozers moved into the camp near
the border with Egypt under Israeli control.
"Israel
has only itself to blame for this escalation, as its forces maintained
almost-daily aggressions against Palestinian areas," Emad
El-Falluji, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (lower
house of parliament) said.
"Palestinian
factions did not carry out any operations for six months, but Israel
has kept up its raids on Palestinian civilians and cities under its
occupation ," El-Falluji told Aljazeera.
Late
Monday, August 30, a Palestinian farmer was killed by Israeli fire
near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.
The
Israeli army claimed soldiers had opened fire on a suspect seen
climbing towards a fence at Morag settlement in the south of the Gaza
Strip.
In
the West Bank, occupation army sources said they had detained 38
Palestinians, including 24 in the southern Al-Khalil region, seven in
Bethlehem and seven in the town of Abu Dis on the outskirts of Al-Quds
(occupied East Jerusalem).
In
addition, an Israeli army unit composed of around 30 jeeps and tanks,
with aerial cover from combat helicopters, staged an incursion into
the northern West Bank town of Jenin and its neighbouring refugee
camp, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
The
soldiers imposed a curfew as they stormed into the town at dawn.
Three
members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades escaped an assassination attempt
Monday, also in Jenin, when an Israeli helicopter missile missed their
car and slammed into a nearby house.
"I
think Palestinians await such Tuesday operations, as they are deeply
suffering under ceaseless Israeli aggressions," said Hamas leader
in Lebanon Osama Himdan.
He
refused to claim Hamas’ responsibility for the attacks, although
saying they are justified.
Some
8,000 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails are staging a hunger
strike in protest at the deplorable conditions for the 16th day
running Tuesday. Thousands of Palestinians took to streets in
solidarity marches.
