A Hamas spokesman said the bombing attacks in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba Tuesday "are a natural reaction" to Israeli policy.
"These attacks are coming to certify that the only choice that had remained for the Palestinian is the choice of resistance," Hamas spokesman Mosheer al Masri said. "Israel should expect such attacks after it assassinated Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz Rantisi."
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing attacks that destroyed two buses and left dozens of casualties.
Meanwhile, Khader Habib, the Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, said that the bombing attacks were carried out to support thousands of Palestinian prisoners who have been staging a hunger strike for more than two weeks.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
