TABA, Egypt – A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three deadly car bombings targeting Israeli tourists, and investigators were looking into possible Palestinian Arab terrorist involvement, Egyptian security officials said yesterday.

The tribesman said the buyers, whom he could not identify, told him the explosives would be used in Palestinian territories, an Egyptian investigator said.

“The explosives were sold on the assumption that they were going to the Palestinians,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Egyptians reportedly have asked Israel to provide information about specific Palestinian Arabs who recently entered their country.

Three car bombs, each packed with 440 pounds of explosives, exploded Thursday night – one at the Taba Hilton just south of the Egypt-Israel border and two at a Red Sea town of beach bungalows, Ras Shitan, 35 miles to the south.

Israeli Major General Yair Naveh, head of the Israeli army home front command, said in addition to the Isuzu pickup truck that exploded at the Taba hotel, a suicide bomber inside detonated another bomb. Egypt has put the death toll at 34. General Naveh, speaking in Taba, said at least 32 bodies had been found, plus body parts that may include the remains of others. The dead included Egyptians, Israelis, Italians, a Russian woman, and others from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Israeli rescue officials said 12 Israelis have been positively identified among the dead and a few more Israelis were still unaccounted for. Egyptian security officials said some of dozens of Bedouins detained for questioning after the car bombings in Taba and Ras Shitan have been cooperating with authorities and have provided valuable information about explosives.

Sinai is inhabited by about 10 semi nomadic Bedouin tribes, whose population is estimated at about 4,000. Many tribesmen are known for their knowledge of Sinai’s vast deserts and mountain ranges, while police accuse some of smuggling weapons, drugs, and people across Egypt’s border with Israel and Gaza. Israeli officials have complained in the past of weapons and explosives being smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Sinai which borders the Palestinian territory. The Israelis maintain they come through tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.

Palestinian Arab and Egyptian officials also said that Egyptian security and intelligence officers have been discussing the attacks with officials from the Palestinian Arab terror organizations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Egyptians were seeking information about members of the groups upset about Egypt’s plan to help secure the Gaza Strip if Israel withdraws. Egypt has come under fire from some Arabs for allegedly aiding Israel; Egypt maintains it needs to ensure stability along its border in the event of a security vacuum left by Israel’s departure.

An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at Palestinian Arab gunmen in the Jebaliya refugee camp after nightfall yesterday, killing one and wounding seven, in the second air strike of the day.

Palestinian Arab security officials said the target of the missile strike was a group of terrorists organizing to attack Israeli forces. They identified the dead man as a 20-year-old activist of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. Israeli military sources said the second air strike was aimed at Palestinian Arabs planting a bomb.