Girl and mother killed in two-hour West Bank raid

An 11-year-old girl and her mother were killed when a Palestinian gunman disguised as an Israeli soldier raided a tiny Jewish settlement.

A soldier was also killed in the two hour assault on Hamra, a West Bank settlement of about 40 families in the Jordan River Valley.

Terrified residents barricaded themselves in their homes, turning off lights to avoid drawing the gunman’s attention.

The gunman was unhurried and fired methodically, witnesses said.

He was armed with an M-16 assault rifle, a grenade and eight ammunition clips, said Major General Yitzhak Eitan, the army commander in the West Bank.

‘‘He was walking while shooting, not rushing, going slowly,’’ said Yigal Daniel, 62, a Hamra resident.

The gunman entered the house where Miri Ohana, 50, and her 11-year-old daughter Yael were hiding.

‘‘During a battle that erupted the terrorist was killed, as were two civilians who were in the house,’’ said Eitan.

It was not clear whether the two civilians were killed by the gunman or by the soldiers’ fire, but he said an investigation had been launched.

Four other people were wounded before the attacker was eventually shot dead.

The assault marked the first time in 16 months of fighting that Israelis were killed in their home in a Palestinian attack.

In retaliation, Israeli F-16 warplanes struck a prison and Palestinian government complex in the West Bank town of Nablus, wounding 11 people.

A leader from the Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, said the group was escalating its attacks.

‘‘We started with shooting attacks, then roadside bombs, and now we are sending attackers into Israel and the settlements,’’ he said.

Both the Al Aqsa Brigades and the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the Hamra attack, which came just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet US President George Bush in Washington.

Sharon has said he will ask Bush to sever all ties with Arafat, whom Israel holds responsible for Palestinian attacks on its citizens.