At least eight Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed and at least four were seriously injured in a shooting attack Sunday morning north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israel Radio reported. The attack took place at around 7 A.M. (local time)
Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli roadblock and at Israeli cars that were in the area.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a military wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for this attack.
A short while later, one Israeli soldier was killed and several injured when a bomb detonated near the "Kissufim" crossing in the Gaza Strip. One of the injured was in seroius condition, Israel Radio reported.
Bethlehem Bombardment
Before the shooting attack on Sunday, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian police headquarters in the West Bank city of Bethlehem in response to the Jerusalem suicide bombing attack.
Palestinian security sources said at least five missiles hit Bethlehem police station in a pre-dawn strike, causing heavy damage and setting it on fire but inflicting no casualties.
The Israeli army said it attacked this building and a workshop for manufacturing weapons in Bethlehem in response to the deadly attack Saturday on Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army withdrew from the West Bank refugee camp of Balata Sunday morning, but is continuing to blockade it and the Jenin refugee camp, after pulling back from it on Saturday.
Jerusalem Attack
Nine Israelis were killed and more than 40 others were injured when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem on Saturday evening.
The Qatari Al Jezeera television station identified the bomber as 19-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Dararmeh, from the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for this suicide attack.
An unidentified caller from the group told Reuters that the bomber came from the Deheisheh refugee camp. "This attack is in response to the massacres that the [Israeli army] carried out in Balata and in Jenin [refugee camps]," the caller said.
The United States condemned the bombing in Jerusalem, calling on Arafat to stop those responsible for such attacks.
"The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this terrorist outrage," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"Such murder of innocent citizens cannot be justified and can only harm the interests and aspirations of the Palestinian people in progress toward a better future," Boucher added.
"We call upon Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to do everything possible to confront and stop the terrorists responsible for these criminal acts."
For its part, the PA released a statement condemning this attack, stressing that it was against any attacks on civilians, Israeli or Palestinian. (Albawaba.com)
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