Firebomb Kills Israeli Woman; 5 Hurt

An Israeli woman was killed and her husband and four children were seriously injured Saturday when a firebomb was thrown into their car near an Arab village in the occupied West Bank, an army spokesman said.

Several hours later, about 600 angry Jewish settlers entered the nearby Arab town of Qalqiliya and set fire to Arab cars and surrounding fields, Israel radio reported. It said the settlers also broke into the house of the town’s mayor.

Security forces sealed off all entrances to the town, and the army declared the area a closed military zone, according to the broadcast.

The army spokesman said the firebomb attack occurred Saturday night on a road about 20 miles northeast of Tel Aviv.

He said the Jewish family and a friend were driving through the Arab village of Habla near Qalqiliya when the firebomb was thrown into the vehicle and it exploded, killing the mother instantly.

Israel radio identified the slain woman as Ofra Moses, from the Jewish settlement of Alfe Menashe near Qalqiliya.

The father, his three children and a child from another family suffered severe burns and one was in critical condition, hospital officials reported.

A military curfew was imposed on Habla and Qalqiliya as soldiers searched the area, the army spokesman said.

Israel television quoted Shlomo Katan, the head of the Alfe Menashe settlement, as saying the Israelis were setting fire to the fields around Qalqiliya because Arab terrorists attacked passing vehicles from the fields, and security forces had done nothing to stop them.