At least 12 Israelis have been killed and around 30 wounded wounded in back-to-back Palestinian ambushes on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Hebron this evening. One of the gunmen was later shot dead by Israeli troops according to Israel army radio reports.
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An injured Israel settler is taken to an ambulance at the Gush Ezion junction near the West Bank city of Hebron. Reuters
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As settlers walked home from Sabbath prayers, police and emergency services said a number of gunmen opened fire on settlers on the so-called Prayers Road that leads from Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs to the settlement of Kiryat Arba on the eastern outskirts.
At least three settlers were killed and several wounded, medics said.
Shortly afterwards, Israeli soldiers rushing to the scene from the direction of the settlement came under fire and grenade attacks. There were no immediate details on casualties among them.
Israel public radio said it took the emergency services more than 40 minutes to reach the wounded due to heavy ongoing firing between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.
Shooting was still heard in the area two hours after the first attack, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the shooting in a telephone call to the AFP newsagency.
Some 450 Jewish settlers, many of them armed, live among 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, which was divided into Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled sectors under an interim peace deal in 1997.
Elsewhere, a Palestinian thought to be a member of Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah group was shot dead by Israeli troops near Jenin.
The man's family named him as Mr Mahmud Abed (28). The army claim he wanted on suspicion of militant activity.
The killing occurred during an army raid on Anza village, 10 miles south of Jenin.
AFP