The armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas claimed responsibility for a resistance bombing that killed the Palestinian attacker and five others and wounded more than 60 on a Tel Aviv bus. "At 12:55 this afternoon, a martyr from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades took bus number 4 and blew himself up amid the Zionist passengers," the group said in a fax received by AFP here.

"This is the third of a series of responses we promised for the assassination of our leader Sheikh Salah Shehade," the statement added in reference to a July 22 Israeli raid which killed the Hamas military leader, as well as his bodyguard and 15 civilians.

The statement also said the bus bombing, which came a day after another resistance bombing claimed by the rival Islamic Jihad shattered a six-week lull in Palestinian attacks inside Israel, was also in retaliation for the killing and capture of several other Hamas leader across the West Bank in past weeks.

A senior political leader for Hamas in the Gaza Strip had earlier warned that Israel would face a string of attacks, but had stopped short of claiming responsibility for the deadly bombing on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

"I expect this is one of a series of martyr operations. The martyr operations will continue against the Zionists, we are defending our people. The resistance will escalate," Abdel Aziz Rantissi said.

Rantissi also said he did not fear an Israeli military response. "They have done all that they could -- they have killed, destroyed, carried out arrests, and even committed massacres and terrorism against our people," he charged.

"Let them do what they like, we will do what we like," he said, adding that Israel "will not live in security as long as it has not left our land."

The occupation army reoccupied most of the West Bank on June 19 following a similar sequence of back-to-back Palestinian resistance attacks, and only withdrew from Bethlehem a month ago.

Israeli public radio reported that the occupation army reimposed its curfew on all West Bank cities it occupies, except for Hebron, following an emergency security meeting convened after the latest bombing.

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