Six Palestinians killed after assassination

Israeli-Palestinian violence was escalating again despite US appeals for calm, with six Palestinians and one Israeli dead in a series of incidents two days after the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Atef Abayat, leader of a Palestinian militia affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, died yesterday along with two members of his militia when a powerful bomb went off in their car near Bethlehem in the West Bank.