Palestinian suicide bomber kills three

A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber blew up at a Jewish settlement yesterday, killing three people, after he was grabbed by two bystanders and shot by Israeli soldiers, police and witnesses said.

The blast coincided with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's biggest cabinet dispute since taking office 19 months ago a crisis over funding of the settlements that threatened to shatter his ruling coalition.

Shortly after the explosion in a petrol station in the settlement of Ariel, Israeli troops killed two militants in Nablus in the West Bank.

Palestinian officials called it an assassination, but the army said the men died in a gun battle.

The settlement blast, which also wounded some 20 people, occurred at a petrol station at the entrance to Ariel, some 15 miles east of Tel Aviv and one of the largest settlements Israel has built on occupied land in the West Bank.

It followed a suicide bombing last Monday that killed 14 in Israel and prompted a large army sweep for militants in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

"I saw the gas station manager and his worker had spotted the terrorist and then they grabbed him," witness Yehiel Hazan told Israel Radio. "As they held him, they asked the soldiers to shoot him. They shot him... and approached, and as a result, I'm sorry to say, the bomb exploded," he said.

"I don't exactly know what set off the explosion."

Police said three people had died along with the man, who wore an explosives belt.

A senior police officer said the Palestinian was shot in the head and triggered the explosives as he fell.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Another witness, Izzy Biton, said he heard three shots fired by the soldiers at Ariel, which with some 17,000 residents is the second-largest settlement Israel has built on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Dozens of troops had stopped at the petrol station's snack bar, which is popular with troops who are on their way back to their bases in the West Bank at the start of the Israeli working week.