The suicide bombing attack carried out earlier Sunday in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva would be a test for both Israel and the Palestinians on what will be the next measures to be taken amid an implementation of an Israeli unilateral disengagement plan with the Palestinians.

An unknown suicide bomber blew himself on Sunday morning at the central bus station in the city, injuring at least 40 Israelis, most of them are lightly.

Mohamed Abu el-Kheir, a Palestinian political analyst said that the Sunday suicide bombing is the first after Israel evacuated Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in northern West Bank.

It would be a test for both the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to know what would be the next steps and measures that both have to take in order to keep the situation of calm and resume the peace talks between both sides, he added.

Until now, no one had claimed responsibility for the attack, not like several similar attacks in the past that the Palestinian militant groups were competing on who is responsible.

May be those militant groups are afraid to claim responsibility immediately after the attack as they wanted just to know what either Israel or the PNA would do after the attack, said Abu el-Kheir.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas denounced that the suicide bombing attack carried out in Be'er Sheva is a terrorist operation against civilians.

In a written statement sent to reporters, Abbas said that it is necessary for everyone, referring to Palestinian factions and militant groups to be committed to the calm agreement.

He called on Palestinian political powers, parties and militant groups for self-restrain although there are Israeli provocations such as killing five Palestinians, including three children in Tulkarem refugee camp few days ago.

He, meanwhile, urged Israel to reiterate its commitment to the truce, or ceasefire and stop all actions on incursions and assassinations into the Palestinian territories, adding calmness and truce are an interest for both peoples as well as for the peace process.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the PNA condemns the bombing attack and any other attacks that target innocent people, no matter if they Israelis or Palestinians.

Erekat told reporters in Abu Dis near Jerusalem before the weekly meeting of the PNA is held that he call on all parties to exert their maximum efforts to maintain the current truce and calm that dominated the region recently.

Violence definitely will bring more violence, and what Israelis and Palestinians need today is more peace and not violence, he stressed.

However, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of the ruling Fatah movement said that the Be'er Sheva bombing attack is a natural reaction to the daily Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.

This operation is one of the natural responses carried out by different Palestinian militant groups to the "Zionist" violations committed by the occupation forces and the settlers against our people, said Abu Thaer, a spokesman of the group.

He told reporters that the Israeli crimes are either carried out into the occupied Palestinian territories, citing the latest crime in which five Palestinian militants were killed in Tulkarem.

A senior leader of the radical Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement also commented to the suicide bombing attack as a natural respond to the "Zionist" crimes against the Palestinian people.

Khaled al-Batsh told reporters that the last "Zionist" crime against our people was killing five Palestinians in Tulkarem, who are members of both Jihad armed wing Saray al-Quds, and Fatah armed wing al-Aqsa Brigades.

This attack was also a response to the crime of throwing a head of a slaughtered pig into one of the mosques in Jaffa as well as opening fire at innocent Palestinians and killing them near Shfar Amre and Sheloh, he added.

Such crimes are awful and would never pass without punishment by the Palestinian resistance forces which vowed and fulfilled this vow and managed to cross all the walls and security measures, said al-Batsh.

A prominent leader of another radical movement, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the West Bank announced that his movement had previously warned of attacks such as Be'er Sheva bombing following an increase of Israeli violations against the Palestinians.

Sheikh Hassan Yousef told reporters that the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people caused the bombing attack that was carried out earlier Sunday in the southern Israeli town of Be'er Sheva.

Yousef said that there has been an obvious increase of the Israeli occupation crimes against the Palestinians in Shfar Amer in Israel, as well as in the Israeli settlement of Shiloh near Ramallah and in Tulkarem.

The Israelis killed 15 people in these three attacks, he said, adding that we warned that the Palestinian people would certainly respond to these attacks, he said.

Yousef added that any consequences of the Israeli crimes, Israel will be responsible for because its occupation was not committed to the truce agreement between the Palestinians and the Israel.

Meanwhile, the international community has a big responsibility as it didn't press on Israel to oblige it to be committed to the current calmness, he said, adding that the international community didn't carry its role as it is supposed to be.

Source: Xinhua