Three Israelis killed in shooting

Three people were killed in a Palestinian shooting attack south of the West Bank city of Hebron today, witnesses and rescue services said.

In a statement, the rescue services said that Palestinians opened fire on a vehicle at the Beit Haggai intersection, near a settlement in the Hebron hills, and three people were killed.

The attack came just five days before Israel’s elections, where Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is running for re-election with a policy of harsh military reprisals against Palestinians following violent incidents, is favoured over his doveish opponent, Amram Mitzna, who favours negotiations with the Palestinians and withdrawal from most of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

In the past, Palestinian attacks on the eve of Israeli elections have helped hard-line parties like Sharon’s Likud, galvanising Israeli fears of terror attacks and desires for reprisals.

About 450 Israeli settlers live in three enclaves in the middle of Hebron, making it a flashpoint for violence. Sharon has said Israel cannot give up the hotly disputed holy site in Hebron – the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where the biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried – while Mitzna favours withdrawal.

Israel TV reported that the Israeli vehicle was the target of a Palestinian ambush. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers were searching the area, the report said.

The Israeli military would say only that three people were hit by gunfire, but it would not identify them.

Zvi Katsover, mayor of the nearby Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, said that earlier soldiers were firing flares in the air to find armed Palestinians. “This was apparently the unit that was chasing the terrorists, and engaged them, and the results are known,” he told Israel TV.

The attack took place in a sparsely-populated area of the West Bank, south of the city of Hebron, which has been a focus of violence over more than two years of Palestinian-Israeli fighting.

Tensions have been high in Hebron since November 16, when 12 Israeli security forces were killed in a night ambush. The attack prompted the Israeli army to take over the Palestinian-controlled section of the city. Also, on Friday, Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli settler in a house just outside Hebron.