Car blast kills three Palestinians

A militia leader wanted by Israel has been killed by a car explosion.

Two fellow Palestinians have also died in the blast.

Atef Abayat was wanted for the killing of a Jewish settler last month.

Israel had demanded that the Palestinian Authority arrest Abayat.

He commanded a band of gunmen linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Palestinian officials have blamed the car explosion on Israel, but Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay has refused comment.

Hassan Abed Rabbo, a Fatah spokesman in Bethlehem, said the three had just bought a car and had started driving it when it exploded near Bethlehem.

Abed Rabbo accused Israel of having planted the explosives.

A Palestinian security official said the car Abayat was driving had been stolen and that he had received it Thursday.

Israel has said it will continue its policy of targeted killings of suspected Palestinian militants, despite United States criticism.

Israel affirmed the pledge earlier today after a security Cabinet meeting called to discuss its response to the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi.

A radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the Zeevi killing.