Seven Dead In West Bank Attack

Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli bus near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank Tuesday, killing at least seven people, before a high-level meeting on Middle East peace in New York, Israeli police said.

They said another 20 people were wounded in the attack at the entrance to the mainly ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement of Emanuel, the scene of a similar bus ambush in December in which 10 people were killed.

Rescue workers said Palestinian gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers set off a roadside bomb alongside the bus from Tel Aviv and then sprayed surviving passengers with automatic weapons fire as they fled the vehicle.

The incident was the most serious attack on Israelis since the Israeli military reoccupied seven Palestinian cities in the West Bank last month after 26 people were killed in back-to-back Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem.

The latest violence came hours before representatives of the so-called "Quartet" committee — including the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations — met in New York to discuss ways of ending more than 21 months of violence.

Medics who rushed to the entrance of the Emmanuel settlement in the northern West Bank quoted the injured as saying that after the initial explosion, several smaller ones went off, followed by shooting, Israel Radio said.

The witnesses said the attackers, about three in all, were dressed in Israel army uniforms and opened fire as the bus passengers tried to escape. The gunmen fled in the direction of Nablus, the report said.

Abraham Cohen, security officer at Emmanuel, said he arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion.

"The shooting was still going on and shots were fired at my car. I was lucky to get out of my car before it was hit," he said.

Seven people were killed, said Shahar Ayalon, the police commander in the northern West Bank. Emergency officials said at least 14 people were injured, four of them moderately.

Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attack.

"Israeli civilians continue to be the choice targets of Palestinian terrorists," said David Baker, a spokesman for the government, calling the attack "further proof that the Palestinian Authority considers terrorism a primary mode of operation."

No reaction was immediately available from the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian officials have said that with Israel in control of most of the cities and towns in the West Bank since last month, their security services are powerless to prevent attacks.

While Palestinian officials routinely condemn suicide attacks in Israel itself, they have rarely condemned attacks on settlements, arguing that Palestinians have a legitimate right to resist Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

An ambush on a bus in the same area Dec. 12 killed 11 Israelis. The last attack on Israelis occurred June 20, when a gunman killed five Israelis in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, near Nablus in the north West Bank.

The lull in attacks was widely seen in Israel as evidence that the policy of reoccupying the Palestinian Authorities' autonomous zones was the best method for preventing further attacks on Israelis.

Emmanuel, a largely ultra-Orthodox settlement of a few thousand people, is located between Nablus and the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

The armored bus was run by a private company and was traveling between the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak to Emmanuel, an Israeli security official said.

Armored ambulances and helicopters rushed to the scene to take the injured to hospitals. Israel Radio said helicopter gunships were also deployed to hunt for the attackers.

Media and some rescue teams were prevented from reaching the scene because Israeli security officials feared other explosive devices might still be in the area.

"Once it is cleared, we will go in and take care of the bodies which are still there," said Moshe Shapiro, a spokesman for an ultra-Orthodox group that recovers the remains of victims. "It is too dangerous at this stage to recover the bodies."

Israel's Channel Two television said the injured were not only from the bus, but from a vehicle that was driving ahead of it.