Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned the suicide bombing attack in the northern Israeli coastal city of Netanya late Tuesday.

"We consider this a terrorist action, a crime against the Palestinian people," Abbas told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"No sensible person could do such a thing on the eve of the (Israeli) pullout from Gaza and northern West Bank," Abbas said.

Israel is scheduled to start implementing its unilateral disengagement plan in mid-August, which demands the withdrawal of all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four smaller ones in northern West Bank.

Saraya al-Quds, an armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad group, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the suicide bomber as Ahmed Sami Abu Khalil, 18, a Jihad activist from the village of Allar, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm.

A senior Jihad leader in Gaza, Khaled al-Batsh, told reporters that the attack "is a natural reaction to the daily Israeli violation of the calmness the movement accepted in March."

It was the first suicide bombing since 13 Palestinian factions including Islamic Jihad agreed to observe a one-year period of calm on March 17, following the declaration of mutual ceasefire by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abbas on Feb. 8.

About forty minutes before the Netanya bombing, Israeli police foiled an attempted car bomb attack on the Shavei Shomron settlement in northern West Bank.

As the Gaza pullout is looming, any new wave of violence could hamper the operation, which is key to reviving the long-stalled roadmap plan for peace in the region.

Like what Jibril Rajoob, national security advisor to Abbas, described, "The attack is harmful to the Palestinians just cause."

Source: Xinhua