Four Israelis and One Palestinian Die in Surge of Violence
Palestinian gunmen ambushed two Israeli cars today on a road south of the West Bank city of Hebron, killing four Jewish settlers and wounding two others. A couple and their teenage son were among the dead.

The attack, a day after another settler was shot and killed in the West Bank, was part of a surge in violence after an Israeli warplane dropped a bomb into a crowded Gaza neighborhood early Tuesday that killed a Hamas leader and 14 other people, 9 of them children.

Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for today's ambush as it did for Thursday's fatal shooting. Fatah's militia, Tanzim, had been preparing to announce a unilateral cease-fire before the Israeli bombing in Gaza, according to accounts by Palestinian officials and Western diplomats.

Since the Gaza bombing, there has been a flare-up of mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli military posts and settlements in and around the Gaza Strip. One rocket landed in a kibbutz in southern Israel on Thursday night, but caused no harm, and an anti-tank missile was fired today at a bus carrying settlers on a road southwest of Gaza City, causing damage but no casualties.

The double ambush south of Hebron occurred on a road bypassing the city that is used by Jewish settlers to reach their communities.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, a Palestinian was killed in Qalqilya when Israeli soldiers occupying the town opened fire as they searched houses, residents said. A bullet struck the man in the head as he stood near a window in his kitchen, a resident reported. The army said it was investigating the incident.

Security has been tightened in Israeli malls and other public places in anticipation of possible retaliation. In Jerusalem today, police officers were posted at roadblocks on busy streets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/27/international/middleeast/27MIDE.html