The Iran-backed terror organization Hamas said Wednesday that the person behind the Monday bombing of a Jerusalem bus, which injured 21 people, was a Hamas operative, seeming to claim credit for the attack without declaring outright responsibility.

The terrorist who conducted the bombing, 19-year-old Abad al-Hamid Abu Srour, was publicly identified by Hamas after he died from wounds he sustained in the explosion. Hamas, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, praised the bus bombing, which was the first such terror attack since 2011.

Times of Israel Palestinian affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote Thursday that Hamas’ claim of responsibility three days after the attack reflected an internal dilemma over whether to “explicitly declare responsibility and glory in the ensuing credit but risk being dragged into a confrontation with Israel, or keep a safe distance away and try to cover up that the bomber was a member of the group.”

By taking credit but not explicitly claiming responsibility, Issacharoff wrote, Hamas’ Gaza-based leadership is sending a message to “carry out as many attacks as possible, wherever you can, in order to perpetuate the ‘lone wolf intifada.’”

Issacharoff’s reporting squares with an analysis written last month by Shaul Bartal of the Begin-Sadat Center, who found that Hamas has actually directed much of the terror that has often been characterized as “lone wolf attacks.” Hamas, Bartal wrote, was “aware of the many advantages and the protection that deception and obscuration provides its operatives, their families and the organization’s institutions.”

Many of the terrorists who have carried out recent terror attacks have family or other connections to Hamas, Bartal wrote. Issacharoff noted that this is true of Abu Srour: Three of his relatives killed a Shin Bet agent in 1993, an operation for which Hamas has claimed credit.

Abu Srour’s father has rejected Hamas’ claim that his son was the bomber.

A poll earlier this month showed that 60% of Palestinians supported armed attacks against Israeli civilians.

[Photo: Hadas Parush / Flash90 ]