Palestinian kills three adults, two kids

A PALESTINIAN gunman ran amok in an Israeli kibbutz at midnight Sunday night, killing five people, including two children.

Two hours later, Israeli helicopters fired rockets into a large metal workshop in downtown Gaza City, starting a large fire, witnesses said. The workshop was believed to be empty at the time of the attack, shortly before 2am (midnight British time).

The Israeli military has frequently targeted such workshops in the past, saying Palestinian militants use them to manufacture weapons.

In the shooting attack, the gunman entered Kibbutz Metzer, a collective farming community in northern Israel, just across the border from the West Bank Sunday night.

“There was shooting for close to 10 minutes, then the security forces arrived and we’re shut inside the houses,” a member of the farm, identified only as Irit, told Israel radio.

Israeli security forces could not immediately locate the gunman. It appears he may have escaped from the farm, about 30 miles north east of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli rescue service, Magen David Adom, said at least five people were killed, including two children.

“Israelis in their own homes were brutally targeted by Palestinian terrorists,” David Baker, an official in prime minister Ariel Sharon’s office, said of the attack at the kibbutz.

Hours earlier in an area just outside Kibbutz Metzer, a car exploded and killed the two Palestinian occupants just as suspicious Israeli police moved to stop the vehicle.

Police had shouted for the driver and his companion to halt. But a moment later, the car blew up said police, who suspect the pair were trying to carry out a suicide attack. It was not clear whether the Palestinians detonated the bomb intentionally or by accident, police said.

That incident was one of three instances yesterday in which Israeli authorities said they managed to prevent planned suicide attacks.

In one other case, the army said it arrested a 15-year-old boy from the West Bank city of Nablus who was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing. Also the army arrested a man it described as a senior Hamas member masterminding an attack from the West Bank town of Hebron.

Throughout the West Bank, Israeli troops have been in or near Palestinian cities for nearly five months, imposing curfews and tough restrictions on Palestinian movements as part of an effort to keep militants from launching attacks.

The number of attacks has declined. But the soldiers’ presence has greatly disrupted Palestinian civilian life, and militants continue attempts to carry out bombings and shootings, occasionally slipping past the Israeli dragnet.

Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz told a Cabinet meeting yesterday Palestinian militants were still making frequent attempts to carry out attacks, particularly from the northern West Bank. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has condemned suicide bombings, but says his security forces cannot function with the Israeli troops currently controlling Palestinian areas.

The militant Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out most of the 84 Palestinian suicide attacks over the past two years, say they will keep up their campaign.