Gunman launches attack at Israeli resort

A Jordanian truck driver opened fire on a crowd of tourists crossing into Israel today, wounding five, in an attack near the Red Sea resort of Eilat that until now has been untouched by three years of Mideast violence.

The gunman was killed by Israeli security personnel.

The attack – which could further harm Israel’s already devastated tourism industry – came as Egyptian and Palestinian officials, seeking to restart the road map peace plan, pressed militants in the Gaza Strip to halt the violence.

Jordanian officials condemned the shooting and said the gunman, who came from a predominantly Palestinian town, was not connected to any organised armed group.

But Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz called the attack ”part of the recent long and painful string of terror attacks in which world terror groups were involved.”

Arieh Zaks, manager of the Rabin border crossing, said the driver was known to officials on both sides of the border. He drove a cattle truck and entered Israel about once a month with the animal.

Israel Radio said the man, who had wrapped his gun in a blanket, raised suspicion when he got out of the truck. Israeli guards shot him six times while he was still on the Jordanian side of the border.

“We heard the shooting, at first we lay down on the floor, then we tried to evacuate the tourists,” said a border crossing worker. “We have been trained for something like this, but I never imagined it could really happen,” she said.

Israeli officials said five Ecuadorean Christian pilgrims were wounded. One of them, a 33-year-old woman, was in critical condition from a head wound and was airlifted to a hospital in Beersheba.

The tourists were part of a group of 39 Ecuadorean pilgrims who were touring Middle East holy sights. They were returning from sites in Jordan and were due to cross from Eilat into Egypt tomorrow.

Israel’s Tourism Ministry sent Spanish-speaking volunteers and psychologists to assist the tourists.

The ministry said Israel and Jordan had agreed to intensify security at the border and increase joint patrols. The governor of the neighbouring Jordanian port of Aqaba said supervision would bestepped up to keep weapons out of the area, it said.

Jordanian minister of state Asma Khader said her government condemned the incident.

She said the gunman was a resident of Zarqa, 16 miles north-east of the Jordanian capital Amman – and said that Jordanian troops had searched his home. However, Khader said that no arrests had been made.

“Preliminary information indicates that it was an individual and not an organisational act,” Khader said

The attack shattered the calm in Eilat, a sunny resort popular with Israelis trying to escape the pressure of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The resort of 42,000 people – with attractions including coral reefs, deep-sea diving, dolphin petting, casino boats and discos – also attracts tens of thousands of tourists year-round, especially from Europe.

“Right now we have lots of tourists, from France and from England,” said Aharon Dekel, chairman of the Eilat Hotel Association. He called the attack “an abnormal, one-time” event but said he fears it could hurt tourism.

Jordan and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1994, and there have only been a handful of incidents of cross-border violence since then. In the deadliest instance, a Jordanian soldier shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 near the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean.

Israel’s tourism industry, its top foreign currency earner, had already been hard hit by three years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. Up to now, however, Eilat has not been seriously affected.

The attack came as Egyptian mediators and the Palestinian prime minister travelled to the Gaza Strip to persuade militant groups to halt attacks on Israel.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, Palestinian police arrested a suspect in the killing of two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. The suspect, a member of the Palestinian security forces in Bethlehem, was arrested and questioned hours after the shooting.