Analysis: The effects of Beersheba

By Jon Leyne
BBC correspondent, Jerusalem

For the last few months, ordinary Israelis had begun to feel slightly more secure.

The bombs ended a lull during which there were no major attacks

During nearly six months without suicide bombings, a degree of normality returned to the streets of Jerusalem and other big cities.

On Tuesday that was shattered. And it was a double shock - a bomb attack in Beersheba, a city that has seen nothing like it in the recent years of violence.

The Israeli government insists the recent calm was the result of the barrier that is being built in and around the West Bank, one of a number of security measures that has made it more difficult for suicide bombers to penetrate into Israel.

Israeli officials have been pointing out that Tuesday's attack happened close to the part of the West Bank where the barrier has not yet been built.

The two bombers are believed to have come from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

So the Israeli government says the attack shows the need to speed up the building of the barrier.

Sharon pressing ahead

But this attack will undoubtedly increase the political heat on the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.

He had chosen Tuesday to step up pressure for his plan to pull Jewish settlers out of Gaza.

He told members of parliament from his ruling Likud party that he would schedule a vote in parliament on the plan for 3 November. That could enable the first withdrawals to happen as early as February.

Sharon faces tough opposition from within his Likud party

Mr Sharon has already been defeated over the plan by the membership of Likud.

He can probably carry a majority of Likud MPs at the moment - but that is by no means certain.

Opponents of the Gaza withdrawal say it is giving in to terrorism.

Indeed some of those opposed to the pullout turned up to protest at the site of the attack in Beersheba just a few hours after the bombs went off.

Mr Sharon will argue that the attack just proves the need for Israel to disentangle itself from contact with the Palestinians.

He may have a point. But this latest upsurge in violence is likely to make an already heated debate even more bitter and contentious.