- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A suspected
Palestinian gunman killed at least five people in a kibbutz in northern
Israel, hours after a double suicide bombing was foiled in the same area
near the West Bank border, police sources said on Monday.
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- Israeli security forces were still in pursuit of the
gunman, who was feared to have hunkered down inside a house in Kibbutz
Metzer, a collective farm, early on Monday.
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- The attack, which began close to midnight on Sunday,
came after Israeli troops pulled back from the West Bank city of Jenin
after a two-week hunt for suicide bombers ahead of the arrival of a U.S.
envoy to pursue a Middle East peace plan.
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- "There is an attack by terrorists in the kibbutz
and searches are underway," a police spokesman said.
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- At least five people in the kibbutz were killed, police
sources and medics said.
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- "We are all closed up in our houses. We heard the
shots and turned off the lights and shut the doors," kibbutz resident
Oded Shahar told Israeli Channel Two television.
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- Israeli military sources said rockets from a military
helicopter destroyed a metal foundry believed to be making mortar bombs
in Gaza City early on Monday. No injuries were reported.
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- Earlier on Sunday, police had erected a checkpoint near
Metzer, after receiving information of a potential attack being launched
from the Palestinian city of Nablus.
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- Two Palestinians inside a car apparently blew themselves
up after border police spotted what they said was a "suspicious looking"
vehicle and asked the driver to pull over, police said. There were no other
injuries.
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- Israeli media said one of the men was wearing an explosives
belt, while the second detonated a booby-trapped bag. Television footage
of the scene showed the skeletal remains of their vehicle, with a pair
of black shoes next to it.
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- ISRAELIS BLAME "TERRORISTS"
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- Palestinian suicide attacks have killed scores of Israelis
in a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. Militants say the
attacks are to avenge Israeli military raids in which Palestinian civilians
and combatants are killed.
-
- "Once again the bloody hand of Palestinian terror
has lashed out at Israeli civilians, this time in their own homes,"
David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, said
of the Metzer attack.
-
- At least 1,653 Palestinians and 626 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000 after peace
talks froze.
-
- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield --
whose exact travel plans have not been disclosed -- was due in the region
this week to promote a "roadmap" to peace and Palestinian reforms
which Washington has demanded as a prelude to statehood.
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- The peace proposal, part of efforts by U.S., European
Union, United Nations and Russian mediators, has drawn reservations from
Palestinian officials and Israeli cabinet ministers.
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- The proposal calls for an end to armed Palestinian attacks,
Israeli army withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian cities, talks toward
a final peace settlement, and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip by 2005.
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- Palestinian ministers said the plan should define a stricter
schedule, clearly call for an end to Jewish settlement building on occupied
land and send international monitors to the region.
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- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon choked off criticism of the
plan in his right-wing government, refusing to allow a debate on the subject
during Sunday's cabinet meeting, apparently to avoid a clash with the United
States before a possible war on Iraq.
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- MINISTERS CRITICIZE U.S. PLAN
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- Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz, Sharon's two newest cabinet additions after the collapse of
his broad-based coalition 11 days ago, have both criticized the proposal.
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- Mofaz believes the plan does not appropriately address
Israel's security concerns, political sources said.
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- Netanyahu has opposed a fully fledged Palestinian state,
but has said he would not push the government to change its policy on peace
talks before a general election expected in late January.
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- Netanyahu has said he would challenge Sharon in a Likud
leadership election set for November 28.
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- In Cairo, officials from Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat's Fatah faction and the militant Islamic group Hamas met on Sunday
as part of a series of talks to iron out tensions between them and discuss
ending suicide attacks inside Israel.
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- Israeli armor took up new positions in Jenin's outskirts
on Sunday two weeks after rumbling into the city with hundreds of infantry
to mount house-to-house searches for militants.
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- Palestinian children attended school for the first time
in two weeks in Jenin as a curfew was lifted.
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- An Israeli army commander said 55 Palestinian militants
and three would-be suicide bombers were detained in the Jenin offensive,
which followed a bombing which killed 14 Israelis.
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