MIDDLE EAST: In a serious blow to the Middle East peace "road map" and to the status of the Palestinian Prime Minister, five Israelis, four of them soldiers, were killed yesterday in two separate attacks by Palestinian gunmen, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, writes Peter Hirschberg in Jerusalem.
The five Palestinian gunmen who carried out the two attacks were killed by Israeli troops.
The shooting in Gaza, in which three gunmen killed four Israeli soldiers near the northern-most checkpoint in the Strip just after dawn, was the first major attack since the US-brokered peace summit in the Jordanian port of Aqaba last Wednesday, where Mr Mahmoud Abbas called for an end to "the armed intifada".
In a daring strike, the gunmen, dressed in Israeli army uniforms and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenades, arrived at the Erez crossing from Gaza into Israel along with a group of Palestinian workers. Partially obscured by the early morning mist, they opened fire and tossed grenades at an army outpost in the area, killing three soldiers.
Two of the gunmen then penetrated the outpost, killing another soldier, before troops returned fire, shooting the three gunmen dead. Another armed Palestinian was shot dead by troops a few hours earlier as he tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
Towards evening, an Israeli was killed in the divided West Bank city of Hebron after two gunmen opened fire near the Cave of the Patriarchs. Troops at the scene returned fire, killing both gunmen.
Israel's criticism of the Palestinian Authority was uncharacteristically muted yesterday in what appeared to be an effort not to undermine Mr Abbas. Israel's deputy Defence Minister, Mr Ze'ev Boim, blamed Palestinian militant groups, saying the attack in Gaza proved they "are not ready to accept this \ plan".
Defending his support for the road map at a raucous meeting in Jerusalem last night of his centre-right Likud Party - many members oppose the plan - the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said if the Palestinian Authority did not move against militants, he would not continue talks. However, reiterated his readiness to make "painful compromises, even very painful \", for peace.
The latest attacks come against the backdrop of a growing dispute between the new government of Mr Abbas and militant groups like Hamas, which announced on Friday it was cutting off talks with the Palestinian prime minister over ending attacks on Israelis. Hamas leaders said the reason was Mr Abbas's failure to mention key Palestinian demands in his Aqaba speech.
The fact that the Gaza attack was the product of a rare combined operation - Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed joint responsibility - was a defiant message to Mr Abbas. A leaflet carrying the names of the three attackers, all in their early 20s, said each organisation had provided one of the gunmen.
The latest attacks are also part of an effort by militant groups to torpedo the road map, which envisions an independent Palestinian state by 2005. A Hamas leader in Gaza, Mr Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said the shooting there was a message to the Palestinian Authority that militant groups would not lay down their weapons and "surrender to the pressure exerted by Israel and the United States of America". Mr Abbas said he too would not succumb to pressure to use force in cracking down on militants and would continue to try to persuade them, via dialogue, to accept a truce. "We will not allow anybody to drag us into a civil war," he said.
Apparently alarmed by domestic criticism of his speech in Aqaba, Mr Abbas said yesterday his address might have been "misunderstood". He plans to hold a press conference today to clarify his positions.
Mr Mohammed Dahlan, the minister of security affairs in the new Palestinian government, said if Hamas refused to resume ceasefire talks, it was a sign the group was seeking confrontation with the Palestinian Authority.
Other Palestinian leaders blamed Israel, saying that continuing restrictions on residents in the Occupied Territories and the killing of two Hamas militants by Israeli troops on Thursday night had sparked the latest attacks.
In the wake of the unravelling of truce talks, the Israeli military reimposed a curfew across the West Bank at midnight on Saturday.