BEERSHEBA (Israel), Aug 28: A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up, critically wounded two guards at an Israeli bus station on Sunday in the first such attack since the eviction of Jewish settlers from Gaza and part of the West Bank.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in Beersheba, three days after troops killed five Palestinians in a raid aimed at militants in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, drawing vows of revenge from the Islamic Jihad group.

An Israeli police spokesman said nearly 50 people were treated at hospital, most of them for shock. The two guards, who chased the bomber, were critically hurt, the spokesman said.

The explosion, at the entrance to Beersheba’s central bus station, followed a call by US President George Bush for the Palestinians to respond to last week’s pullout from occupied Gaza by showing ‘they will fight terrorism’.

Mr Bush, who hopes the Gaza withdrawal will help revive the US-backed roadmap envisaging a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, stopped short of saying President Mahmoud Abbas dismantle militant groups.

Mr Abbas condemned the suicide bombing, calling it ‘a terrorist attack’ in a statement issued by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. He also condemned Israel’s Tulkarm raid as a ‘provocation’ and urged all sides to show restraint.

Holding its weekly meeting against the backdrop of the Beersheba attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cabinet took a key step towards ending Israel’s 38-year-old military presence in Gaza.

By a vote of 18-2, it approved the deployment of 750 Egyptian border police on the Egyptian side of the Gaza frontier before the Israeli withdrawal.

Police said the Beersheba bomber tried to board a bus at the start of the Israeli work week, but drew the driver’s suspicion.—Reuters