Nine Israelis killed in shooting

Palestinian gunmen opened fire today on Israeli soldiers and civilian cars at an army checkpoint in the West Bank, killing nine people and wounding two seriously, a paramedic on the scene said.

The attack came just 12 hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Saturday evening, killing nine Israelis, including several children.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s bombing and today’s shooting.

The militia - which has said it would take revenge for Israel’s assault last week on the West Bank refugee camps of Balata and Jenin, in which 23 Palestinians were killed over a three-day period - circulated a leaflet saying the shooting was in response to Israeli army actions in the two camps.

Israel condemned the latest violence, blamed Arafat and promised reprisals.

‘‘It seems as that Arafat has given all the so-called organisations a green light to kill and attack right now,’’ said Foreign Ministry official Arie Mekel.

‘‘It seems they are waging a war of terror against us, murder for the sake of murder ... This will force us to act accordingly.’’

Today’s shooting attack took place at an Israeli army roadblock near the Palestinian village of Silwad and the Jewish settlement of Ofra. Seven of the dead were soldiers and two civilians, paramedic Hezi Tsur told Israel radio.

Motorist Eli Barashi said he was about 300 yards from the checkpoint at the time.

‘‘I heard shooting and I saw the soldiers firing back to the east. As I stood there somebody was hit and fell and shouted for a medic. He was about five metres (yards) from me. One man who came out of a building was also hit. I couldn’t be of any use so I turned round and left to get help,’’ Barashi told Israel Radio.

Elsewhere, three soldiers were wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack near the Gaza Strip this morning, the army said. The shooting took place along a road that runs along the Israeli side of the fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.

Israel radio said there were four wounded soldiers. However, a spokesman for a settlers group said one was killed and three wounded.

Also early today, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at Palestinian Authority headquarters and a small factory in Bethlehem. The Israeli military said the strike was retaliation for the Jerusalem bombing.

The thunderous blast from the suicide bombing shook downtown Jerusalem and sent flames leaping into the air from a car that caught fire.

The bomber entered the Mea Shearim neighbourhood in west Jerusalem, ‘‘approached a group of people (and detonated) a large explosive on his body’’, said Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy.

Besides the bomber, nine people were killed, including a one-year-old child and several other children, police said.