Four Israelis killed in West Bank

FOUR Israelis, one of them a pregnant woman, were shot dead near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kyriat Arba on yesterday, just ahead of renewed peace talks, in what police and the military said was a Palestinian ambush.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said a car in which the victims were travelling came under fire on a road between the settlement and the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, near the city of Hebron.

“Obviously it was a terrorist attack,” he said.

Israeli army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz said she believed the dead were settlers from the area, and they were attacked on a road used by both Palestinians and Israelis. She said that many rounds were fired.

Rescue services said the victims were a man and woman around 40 years old and another man and woman in their 20s. The military said one of the women was pregnant.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the attack “pain- ful and grave”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on his way to Washington to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to renew direct peace talks.