BEERSHEBA, Israel – Palestinian Arab suicide bombers blew up two buses in this Israeli desert city yesterday, killing 16 passengers and wounding more than 80 in the deadliest attack in nearly a year.

The blasts ended a six-month lull in violence that Israel had attributed to its security barrier, arrest sweeps, and widespread network of informers.

The buses exploded into flames just seconds apart and about 100 yards away from each other near a busy intersection in the center of Beersheba.

The Hamas terrorist group claimed responsibility, issuing a leaflet in Hebron – the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba – saying it was avenging Israel’s assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year.

Prime Minister Sharon met with his security advisers to plan a response, expected to include a military operation in Hebron. Just hours before the attack, Mr. Sharon presented his Likud Party with the most detailed timetable yet for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Despite the bombings, Mr. Sharon promised to push forward with the Gaza pullout, while insisting Israel would keep fighting terrorism “with all its might.”

“This [the attack] has no connection to disengagement,” he said, referring to his program to separate Israel from the Palestinian Arabs.

Israeli officials said the bombings proved the need for the security barrier now under construction between Israel and the West Bank. The section between Hebron and Beersheba has not been built.” We should go ahead speedily now and finish construction of this fence,” government spokesman Avi Pazner said.

The security barrier, which Israel says is necessary to keep out suicide bombers, has been widely condemned internationally because of the hardships it imposes on Palestinian Arabs.

Palestinian Arab analyst Hani al-Masri agreed with the Israeli assessment of the lull in suicide attacks. He said that it resulted from Israel’s assassination of Hamas leaders and the difficulties of infiltrating posed by the security barrier.

“But now, the military operations [attacks] are a way for Hamas to increase its popularity among Palestinians,” he said, noting that until yesterday the Islamic group had not carried out its promise to avenge Israel’s killing of its founder and his successor.

It had been nearly six months since Israelis last experienced the scene of charred buses, mangled bodies, and screaming sirens that played out in Beersheba on yesterday. The last suicide bombing in Israel took place on March 14, when 11 people were killed at the port of Ashdod.

Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest since a female suicide bomber killed 21 people nearly a year ago in the northern city of Haifa – an attack that prompted Israel to assassinate Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a leader of Hamas, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Israel’s rescue service said 30 of the wounded in yesterday’s attack were in serious condition. Police said the death toll of 16 did not include the bombers.

The two buses lay smoldering in the street, their windows blown out, roofs buckled outward, interiors gutted by flames. Forensic workers picked up body parts, including a woman’s hand with a silver ring still attached.

One of the bus drivers, Yaakov Cohen, opened his doors and ordered passengers off after hearing the first blast, apparently saving a number of lives.

“I don’t know why I thought to open the doors,” Mr. Cohen told reporters, still dazed, “but at least some of the people were able to escape.”

In Hebron, the Israeli army surrounded the homes of the two suspected bombers, Ahmed Qawasmeh and Nasim Jaabari, and questioned their relatives.

[Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian Arabs took to the streets in major cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to celebrate the bombings in Beersheba, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Women in Nablus ululated in joy as Arab satellite TV stations interrupted their normal programs to break the news of the bombings. Scores of gunmen opened fire into the air, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is Great.”

Similar expressions of joy were reported in Tulkarm and Jenin.

The protesters, according to the Post, hailed the suicide bombers as heroes and urged Hamas to launch more attacks inside Israel. Some of the demonstrators handed out sweets to the crowd as a sign of their jubilation.]