JERUSALEM Ñ A Palestinian insurgent shot his way through a Jewish
settlement near the Jordan River and took an Israeli family hostage before being shot by Israeli commandos called to the scene.
Israeli sources said that in addition to the insurgent one Israeli was
killed and another four were injured in the Palestinian attack, Middle East Newsline reported. The sources said
other Palestinians were also believed involved in the attack.
It was the first time in the 16-month-old war that Palestinian
insurgents succeeded in infiltrating a Jewish settlement in the West Bank
and holding Israelis hostage. For months, the military had been training for
such a prospect.
The Palestinian, identified as a member of the Hamas
movement, made his way into the Jordan Valley settlement after
shooting two guards. He then entered a nearby home and seized hostages. The commandos have freed the hostages to end the incident late Wednesday.
Israeli military sources said an elite police unit burst into a home in
the Jewish settlement of Hamra and freed a family that had been taken
hostage. The Palestinian captor was killed in the shootout.
The area was lit up with flares fired by the troops.
Also on Wednesday night, Israeli combat aircraft attacked a West Bank city
believed to contain a base for the production of Palestinian short-range
rockets. Hours before the attack, Israeli troops seized a shipment of Kassam-2 short-range rockets.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police stopped a bus in Jerusalem and arrested a passenger with explosives strapped to his body, a police spokesman said.
The driver of the bus was headed for the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement near Jerusalem when he stopped at a military checkpoint on the outskirts of the city and told police he had spotted a suspicious-looking man on board, the spokesman said.
"There was some sort of a struggle on the bus," the spokesman said. "When they (police) took him off they found an explosive belt on his body."
The bomb was defused by police bomb disposal experts, the spokesman said. He said it was not yet clear whether the man had intended to blow himself up or was planning to plant the bomb. The identity of the suspect was not released.
Israel has been hit by a wave of suicide bombings by Islamic militants since signing peace deals with the Palestinians in 1993. The attacks have escalated since an uprising against occupation erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.