GAZA CITY, November 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups claimed responsibility for a bus bombing attack in West Jerusalem Thursday, November 21, that killed 11 Israelis and the attacker.

"The operation was in response to Israel's occupation and its crimes and is one of the several answers to settle accounts for the assassination of Salah Shehade and the martyrs of Darraj," said a statement by Hamas' armed wing, Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Israeli occupation army dropped a one-ton bomb on the residential neighborhood of Darraj in Gaza City July 22 killing Shehade as well as 16 other people, most of them civilians.

The statement pledged to "continue its jihad [holy struggle] and its martyr operations on every inch of our unlawfully usurped land at any time until the occupation and its crimes stop."

Hamas political leader Abdul-Aziz Rantissi earlier said the bus bombing was "part of our resistance against the [Israeli] occupation and came in response to the crimes perpetrated by that very occupation".

"If Israel wants to stop the bloodshed, they have to leave our land," he added.

"For every crime they commit, the Israelis must expect an appropriate Palestinian answer," he said, adding that his group would know how to defend itself against Israeli reprisals.

Rantissi told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television channel Palestinians backed the continuation of martyr operations.

"There is no reason to stop them ... such operations must go on," he said, adding that "the vast majority of the Palestinian people" support such retaliatory operations.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad group also claimed responsibility for the same bus bombing

"This operation is part of a series by the Palestinian people and its armed forces in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy," said a statement by its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.

"The Islamic Jihad is responsible for this operation, which was carried out by Nael Abu-Hilayel, 23, to demonstrate our fighters' ability to break all of the Zionist enemy's security barriers," the statement added.

For their part, Israeli security officials have named Nael Abu-Hilayel, 26, who moved to the West Bank town of Bethlehem five months ago, as the most likely blast suspect.

Mohammed al-Hindi, a Gaza leader of the Islamic Jihad, said the martyr operation was "to counter the occupation and its crimes ... nobody will have any security in the region unless the Palestinian people are given back their rights and security."

"Soon we will hear the international community condemning this attack, but we must stress that it was in reprisal for the Tulkarem massacre and to avenge [the Israeli incursion into] Khan Yunis last night," Hindi said.

Israeli occupation forces shot dead six Palestinians, including a teenager and a member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in a raid on the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem Tuesday night and Wednesday.