TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Palestinian insurgency groups have made good on their pledge to renew mass-casualty strikes against Israel.

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. At least 42 people were injured, several of them seriously.

Hours later, Islamic Jihad and Fatah claimed responsibility for the strike, the first since Israel's eviction of Jews from the Gaza Strip last week. Hizbullah's Al Manar television said Alaa Zaakik, a 25-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Bet Omar, was the suicide bomber. But Israeli sources said Zaakik was in an Israeli prison and that authorities have not yet identified the bomber.

Security sources said the bomber had been prevented from boarding the bus by the driver and two security guards. At that point, the attacker detonated his backpack full of explosives.