Palestinian Gunmen Kill 2 Israeli Settlers in West Bank
Two Israeli brothers from this settlement were shot to death by masked Palestinian gunmen this morning when they stepped out of their tanker truck to sell diesel fuel in a neighboring Palestinian village, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian militants have vowed to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City last week that killed a leader of the Islamist group Hamas and 14 other people, including 9 children.

Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militia connected with Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for killing the two settlers, saying that its gunmen had acted to avenge "Palestinian warriors."

The police suspect that a trap was laid for the two Israelis, but "everything has to be checked," Inspector Wingrad said. The Israeli Army said it searched Jammain and other nearby villages today and arrested several suspects.

The shooting was the latest in a series of attacks on Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Before dawn today, a Palestinian armed with two knives snuck into the settlement of Itamar, near Nablus, and stabbed a man and a woman. The man suffered moderate injuries and the woman slight ones, the army said, before soldiers shot the attacker to death.

It was the third infiltration into Itamar in two months. New fences have been appearing around some settlements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/31/international/middleeast/31MIDE.html