Israel on alert after bus attack

Thousands of police fanned out across northern Israel and Jerusalem today to prevent possible rioting as a grieving and angry Arab community prepared to bury four Israeli Arabs gunned down by a Jewish soldier opposed to Israel’s impending pullout from the Gaza Strip.

The soldier, 19-year-old Eden Natan-Zada, boarded a bus in the Arab town of Shfaram yesterday and opened fire, killing the driver and three passengers, and wounding 13. A mob of enraged residents beat him to death after the shooting, and prevented police from removing his body from the bus for hours.