Israelis, Palestinian killed in outburst of West Bank violence
The killings a month after Israel completed a pullout from the Gaza Strip tore at a flimsy ceasefire and raised fears of a resurgence in violence in the West Bank where Jewish settlements continue to grow on land Palestinians want for a state.
Hoped-for peacemaking momentum from the withdrawal has not transpired. A Middle East summit has been postponed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet US President George W Bush this week to discuss how to resuscitate a âroad mapâ peace plan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for two drive-by ambushes on Sunday, the first of their kind in four months, outside the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the southern West Bank and Eli settlement in the centre of the territory.
âA Palestinian passed by in a car, let off a burst of fire, and struck down people standing at the hitchhiking post,â Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader in Gush Etzion, told Israel Radio.
Three Israelis were killed in the Gush Etzion attack and four were wounded, the Zaka rescue service and Magen David Adom ambulance service said.
Minutes later, Palestinian gunmen fired on a road junction outside Eli in the central West Bank, wounding two Israelis, one seriously, Magen David Adom said.
In the far north of the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead an Islamic Jihad militant commander during a clash that broke out after they tried to arrest him, Palestinian witnesses and Israeli military sources said.
They said Nehad Abu Ghanem, 27, a leader of Islamic Jihadâs military wing in the region, opened fire on Israeli special forces who cornered him as he was driving his car south of Jenin. Abu Ghanem, 27, was killed when Israeli troops fired back.
Palestinian militant factions had vowed to avenge Israeli army arrest raids that netted hundreds of their comrades in the West Bank since the Gaza pullout.
But the ambushes could embarrass Mr Abbas before his talks with Mr Bush at the White House Thursday.
