2 Israelis Killed in an Apparent Terrorist Attack

JERUSALEM — An Israeli couple were shot to death in their car Sunday night in what appeared to be the first terrorist attack in the country since right-wing Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu won election as prime minister promising to keep Israel secure from terrorism.

The victims were a man and a woman from Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement outside Hebron in the West Bank, traveling with a baby boy who was unhurt, according to police spokesmen.

Hours later, at least five Israeli soldiers were killed and six wounded early today in clashes with Muslim guerrillas in southern Lebanon, security sources said. There were conflicting reports as to whether the soldiers were killed in an ambush or in combat.

Israeli radio reported that Israel commenced bombing in the Nabatiyeh region of southern Lebanon.

The shooting of the Israeli couple took place on a dark back road near a collective farm outside Beit Shemesh, about halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Police Commissioner Asaf Hefetz said between 15 and 20 bullets were fired at the car.

“We are looking into the report of an escaping car. At first [sight], it looks like a terrorist incident,” Hefetz said on Israeli radio.

The assailants are believed to have fled toward Hebron.

Radio reports said shells from two automatic weapons, including a Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifle, were found at the scene and that security forces had set up roadblocks on highways from Beit Shemesh south.

Israel recently relaxed a three-month closure of the West Bank and Gaza that was imposed after a wave of suicide bombings by Islamic militants in February and March killed more than 60 people. Nonetheless, security forces have been concerned about a possible terrorist attack since the May 29 national election that Netanyahu won by a razor-thin margin over Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

During the campaign, Netanyahu sought to convince Israelis frightened by the suicide bombings that he would fight terrorism more forcefully than Peres had. Among other measures, he said, he would send Israeli troops back into Palestinian-controlled cities in pursuit of terrorists if Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority failed to control them.