Palestinian gunmen kill four on eve of talks

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car in the West Bank today and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Middle East peace talks in Washington.

The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Assailants firing from a passing car riddled the vehicle with bullets near Hebron – a volatile city that has been a flash point for violence in the past.

Some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers live in fortified enclaves amid more than 100,000 Palestinians.

One of the victims was pregnant, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Israel’s national rescue service said the victims were two men and two women. Israeli media said everyone in the car was killed.

Video broadcast live on Israel TV showed a white Subaru vehicle at an angle at the side of a road, its windows shot out and its doors dotted with bullet holes. The car was flanked by army and police vehicles and dozens of soldiers.

The attackers fled and Israeli forces set up roadblocks and carried out searches to try to catch them.

About 3,000 people joined a rally in Gaza to celebrate the attack. Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida said: “The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron.”

As he arrived in Washington for this week’s talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and said “terror will not determine Israel’s borders or the future of the settlements”.

The borders and the fate of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a future state are key issues in the negotiations.

President Barack Obama hopes to forge a peace agreement within one year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was already in Washington meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when the attack took place.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s office issued a statement claiming the attack was aimed at undermining his government’s effort to build international support for “the Palestinian position and ending the (Israeli) occupation”.