A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town today in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout.
The teenage attacker, wearing uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was beaten to death by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows.
Security agencies had warned that Jewish militants against the evacuation of Gaza settlements, due to start in two weeks, could attack Palestinians to fire up conflict in a bid to wreck a pullout they see as rejecting a biblical birthright.
Hamas threatened reprisals for the shooting, the deadliest by a Jewish radical since 29 Palestinians were killed in 1994.
Mr Sharon called it "a sinful act by a bloodthirsty terrorist."
"This terror incident is a deliberate attempt to harm the relations between the citizens of Israel. Terror between civilians is the most dangerous thing for the future of Israel and its democratic stability," his office said in a statement.
The army said Eden Nathan Zaada had "deserted and was of a problematic background". Police said he had been living at a settlement in the West Bank. He was 19, Israeli media said.
At least 22 people, all but seven of them Arabs, were hurt in the shooting and the ensuing fracas.
The government has accused some ultranationalists of trying to incite violence ahead of the plan to remove 9,000 settlers from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, the first time Israel will uproot settlements from land Palestinians want for a state.
Mainstream settler leaders, who have vowed peaceful resistance, condemned the attack.
"Such incidents cannot be part of the democratic struggle in Israel," said Yesha settler council Benzi Lieberman from a demonstration outside the Gaza Strip where thousands have gathered to protest against the pullout.