Withdrawal in doubt after five Israelis killed

Palestinian gunmen killed five Israelis in two shooting attacks in the north today, throwing into question Israel’s planned withdrawal from areas in two West Bank towns it occupied to prevent attacks.

While Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jalla remained quiet today, Israeli officials said the attacks could not be ignored and would be a factor in deciding whether forces would withdraw from the two towns as scheduled Sunday.

‘‘We want to pull back our forces,’’ said an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin. But he said, ‘‘you can’t ignore the fact that there were attacks against our citizens and we have to take all the necessary measures and means to protect our citizens.’’

Two Palestinian gunmen driving through Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, fired on Israelis waiting at a bus stop this afternoon, killing four people and injuring 28, three of them seriously, witnesses and hospital officials said.

‘‘Two weapons were aimed at the two sides of the road and then terrorists opened fire,’’ the area police chief, Yaakov Borovsky, told Israel Radio.

Plainclothes police detectives, who had been deployed in extra numbers because of fears of an attack, shot and killed one gunman who had gotten out of the car and another Palestinian who remained inside, witness Danny Kerem, told Army Radio.

Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, is at one of Israel’s narrowest points, just seven miles from the West Bank, and it has been a frequent target for attacks by Palestinian militants.

The militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attack in a videotaped message. The attackers were identified as Youssef Sweitat, 22 and Nidal al-Jabali, 23, who were shown standing in front of a banner with Islamic Jihad written on it and a picture of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl killed last week.

‘‘I heard bursts of fire and I thought it was lightning,’’ said eyewitness Yaakov Roth-Levy, who watched the drama unfold from his balcony. ‘‘I saw two people sitting with bowed heads and one lying on the ground. A red car was being fired on. I saw the terrorist fall out of it.’’

It was the second shooting incident today. Earlier, gunmen shot and killed an Israeli soldier in a drive-by shooting in Israel near the border with the West Bank.

An anonymous caller told the Associated Press that the Al Aqsa Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, attacked an Israeli military vehicle, revenge for Saturday’s killing of a Fatah activist in nearby Tulkarem.

In the wake of the attacks, Sharon met this evening with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to decide whether to proceed with the planned pullback from Bethlehem and Beit Jalla.

Israel postponed the pullback Saturday after clashes broke out in Bethlehem, saying the Palestinians had violated an agreement worked out with US officials calling for a ceasefire. The Palestinians said the pullback was supposed to have been unconditional.

The Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the attack in Hadera and said in a statement it had ordered security commanders to pursue those who planned it and bring them to trial ‘‘for violating the ceasefire and the Palestinian commitments and the Palestinian national interest.’’

‘‘We are committed to the ceasefire which was declared and to the peace process,’’ Arafat told reporters in Gaza after meeting Austrian Social Democratic Party leader Alfred Gusenbauer.

The pullbacks were to have been a test case for four other towns Israel occupied after Palestinian militants assassinated Rehavam Zeevi, an ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister on October 17.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu-Zayyad said an Israeli pullout was a condition for a ceasefire.

‘‘Continuation of the presence of the Israeli army around Palestinian cities and villages and refugee camps is a continuation of the provocation,’’ he told Israel Army Radio.