2 Israelis among 3 killed in WB
Middle East Desk Report

GUSH ETZION (West Bank)—Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis in a drive-by shooting and Israeli troops shot dead a senior Palestinian militant in an eruption of violence in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. The killings a month after Israel completed a pullout from the Gaza Strip tore at a flimsy ceasefire and raised fears of a resurgence in violence in the West Bank where Jewish settlements continue to grow on land Palestinians want for a state. Hoped-for peacemaking momentum from the withdrawal has not transpired. A Middle East summit has been postponed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet US President George W. Bush this week to discuss how to resuscitate a “road map” peace plan. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group from Abbas’ Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the shootings outside Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Eli settlement, the first of their kind in four months. “This is taste of even more to come,” al-Aqsa said in a statement, calling the attacks revenge for Israel’s killing of militants. “A Palestinian passed by in a car, let off a burst of fire, and struck down people standing at the hitchhiking post,” Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader in Gush Etzion, told Israel Radio.