Israeli Settler Killed, Gun Battles Rage in West Bank

Palestinian gunmen shot and killed a Jewish settler and gun battles raged in the West Bank on Sunday as Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon struggled to forge a national unity government.

Israeli hospital and police sources said gunmen firing from the Palestinian-ruled town of Beit Jala shot the 35-year-old Israeli in the head as he drove on a road outside Jerusalem. The man died shortly after medical staff took him to a hospital.

Underlining the tension, an Israeli tank rumbled into the Jewish settlement of Gilo to take up a watchful pose across the valley from Beit Jala.

Israel’s Army Radio said the man was from the Gush Etzion settlement block in the southern West Bank. His death raised to 385 the number of people killed during more than four months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes. While most of the dead have been Palestinian, 53 Israelis have also been killed.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli gunfire wounded six Palestinians, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said.

Violence, which had tapered off before Tuesday’s Israeli election, has intensified since Sharon’s crushing victory over outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak condemned the killing and said in a statement that he had instructed the army and security forces to deal firmly with the perpetrators.

Arch-hawk Sharon has demanded that Palestinians end their revolt against Israeli occupation before peace talks resume.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Sunday that he was adding to his upcoming trip to the Middle East a stop in Syria for discussions with President Bashar Assad.

Syria was not included when Powell announced on Friday a five-day trip that begins Feb. 23.

Powell already planned to meet with Sharon, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait. He also will stop in Brussels for meetings with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

“Syria is an important nation in the region, an important player in this whole process, and so I thought it was very, very appropriate for me, as part of this quick trip through the Middle East, my first trip, to also stop in Syria for just a few hours,” Powell said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”

At his State Department news conference last week, it was noted that Syria was not on Powell’s itinerary. “Don’t read anything” into that, he said, adding: “I reserve the right to change my mind. I am the secretary of State--I can change my mind.”

The visit to Damascus, the Syrian capital, is important because Syria supports Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon who have carried out sporadic attacks against Israel. Further attacks could provoke a deadly response by Sharon, who is committed to bolstering Israel’s security and has not shied away from using force in the past. In 1982, the former general led an invasion of Lebanon.

President Bush and his advisors intend to take Arab-Israeli diplomacy in a new direction, linking the intractable dispute over the Palestinians’ future to other U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf.

Powell, asked about the possibility of Sharon forming a coalition government, replied: “I don’t think it should be the role of the American president or the American secretary of State to tell them what kind of government best reflects the will of the Israeli people.”

One goal of the trip is to ensure continued support of pressure against Iraqi development of weapons of mass destruction.