MIDDLE EAST: A Palestinian gunman infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last night, crept into the communal dining room of a seminary there and opened fire on students gathered for the traditional Sabbath evening meal, killing four of them and injuring at least four others.
The gunmen, who sprayed the seminary dining hall at the settlement of Otniel south of Hebron, was killed by troops who arrived at the scene, after a gunbattle that lasted almost half an hour.
About two hours after the attack, Israeli troops tracked down and shot dead a second Palestinian in a gunfight in a nearby town. The army said the man had guided the gunman to Otniel, but apparently had not entered the settlement.
The militant Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, in an announcement sent to Al-Manar, the Hizbullah television station in Lebanon. The group said the attack was revenge for the killing of one of its senior members, Hamsa Abu Roub, in the northern West Bank on Thursday by Israeli troops.
Initial reports said there were two gunmen, and the army ordered residents into their homes as they conducted a house-to-house search. The army said later, however, that it appeared only one gunman had penetrated the settlement, and that the second man had acted as his guide.
The attack followed the killing on Thursday of seven Palestinians, five of them militiamen and two bystanders, by Israeli troops who were conducting a sweep for militants across the West Bank. Islamic Jihad vowed revenge for the killings.
The Palestinians view the settlements, which have often been the target of attacks since the start of the intifada uprising, as gobbling up land on which they hope to create a future state. Earlier this week, the army confirmed it was building buffer zones around some settlements to ensure that when Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate, troops would be able to engage them several hundred metres from the settlement itself.
In mid-November, Islamic Jihad militiamen shot dead 12 Israeli soldiers and security men in an ambush between the settlement of Kiryat Arba and Hebron.