At least 16 people were killed and around 90 others were wounded Tuesday afternoon in twin suicide attacks on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva.

Palestinian radical group Hamas claimed the responsible for the attacks, the first suicide bombings inside Israel in five months. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, five of the wounded were in very serious condition, 10 were seriously wounded and the rest sustained moderate to light injuries.

However Jerusalem Postreported that the number of people injured were nearly 100. All of the wounded were taken to a medical center in the city.

Initial investigation showed that both buses, No. 12 and No.7, departed from the central bus station in the city, and two suicide bombers - one on each bus - blew themselves up almost simultaneously near the municipality building in central Be'er Sheva at 2:50PM local time (11:50 GMT).

Witnesses said the buses were some 100 meters apart after the big explosions. Shop owner Gil Yehezekel told Haaretz that "I heard a blast and I started to run to the site. Within seconds there was another explosion."

Police have closed off all the main entrances and exits in Be'er Sheva and the center of town has been sealed as well as shops closed.

Police and Shin Bet officers are looking for a suspicious car that has transported the suicide bombers to the city center. A police helicopter is assisting the forces. Officers are questioning lightly wounded victims to collect information about the car and the dispatchers.

Hamas claimed responsibility through a leaflet in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying the attacks were meant to avenge Israel's assassination of its two top leaders in helicopter missile strikes in March and April.

"This is but one of a series of responses in which the Iz a Dinal-Kassam Brigades have vowed to carry out in response to the martyrdom of the leaders of our movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi," said the leaflet.

Shortly after the attack, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops in the West Bank raided the central Hebron home of Ahmed al-Kawasma, one of the Hamas men who claimed to have carried out the attack. Soldiers were searching the area and closed it off to traffic.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed that, "the fight against terror will continue with full strength." His aides said that Sharon will continue with the plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements by the year of 2005.

Palestinian Minister of Negotiations Affairs Saeb Erekat commented that "the Palestinian (National) Authority condemns any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinian. "The United States and European Union also condemned the attack.

There was no suicide bombings inside Israel since March 14, when 11 people were killed in Israeli port city of Ashdod. Earlier Tuesday, IDF soldiers caught a Palestinian man carrying an explosives belt as he tried to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2004)