10-Month-Old Israeli Girl Becomes Unrest’s Youngest Fatality

Palestinian gunfire killed a Jewish baby Monday outside her settlement home in the tense West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli army said, in another surge of bloodshed aimed at testing the new government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The army said the 10-month-old girl was shot in the head as her father cradled her in his arms. The father was also shot and seriously wounded, and a ferocious gun battle raged afterward, with Israeli forces targeting suspected Palestinian sniper positions nearby.

Identified as Shalhevet Pas, the baby was apparently the youngest victim in a 6-month-old conflict that has claimed more than 430 lives, Palestinian children among them as well.

Sharon immediately condemned the Palestinian Authority of Yasser Arafat for the “violence and terrorism” that led to the killing. He convened his security advisors for urgent consultations and ordered army and police forces beefed up in the Israeli-controlled portions of Hebron. Israeli troops sealed off the Palestinian portions.

Jewish settlers in Hebron sought swift retaliation and demanded that Palestinians be “wiped out” from the region. Early today, groups of settlers attempted to invade houses in a Palestinian neighborhood and fought with Palestinians until the army intervened.

“The only solution is to purify these hills of the murderers and terrorists,” settler spokesman Noam Arnon told Israel Radio.

The shooting was part of an escalation of violence throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the eve of a crucial Arab summit in neighboring Jordan, where the Palestinians hope to win additional financial and political support for their fight with Israel.

A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the abdomen in Gaza, stone-throwing Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Jericho, and at least 11 Palestinians were hurt in demonstrations elsewhere.

A car bomb exploded this morning near a Jerusalem shopping mall, slightly injuring several passers-by.

Hebron is one of the most problematic cities in the West Bank. A few hundred Jewish settlers live in tiny enclaves amid more than 130,000 Palestinians. The Jews are heavily guarded by Israeli security forces; for much of the last six months, the estimated 30,000 Palestinians living in the areas of Hebron under Israeli control have been confined to their homes under curfew, unable to shop or go to school.

Most of Hebron was turned over to Palestinian control in 1996 by a government led by Sharon’s own right-wing Likud Party. The city has long been a scene of clashes between Palestinians and settlers. Palestinians say they are terrorized by the settlers; the settlers say they come under fire from the surrounding Palestinian-controlled hills.

But Israeli officials said that Monday’s shooting was different because it was not part of a gun battle.

“The fact they could pick off the baby and then the father makes this a hideous, deliberate, coldblooded murder,” Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said. “Snipers are not just gun-toting youth. They belong to professional security forces. . . . If Arafat had wanted, the sniper would not have been there.”

Senior Palestinian officials, most of whom are in Jordan for the summit, could not be reached for comment.

Sharon returned to Israel late last week after a visit to the U.S., where he used meetings with President Bush and other leaders to stress a single theme: Arafat, and his Force 17 presidential guard, must be held accountable for the bloodshed.

Israeli analysts say Sharon’s tough talk appeared aimed at laying the groundwork for an inevitable harsh retaliation. The crackdown could come next week, after the Arab summit is over, and might include a return to the targeted killings of Palestinian militia leaders, Israeli experts predict.

Palestinian leaders are attempting to widen their revolt against Israeli occupation by staging daily demonstrations whose participants are businesspeople, intellectuals and members of the middle class. The goal is to project a more sympathetic and broad-based image than the prevalent one of gangs and gunmen.

But by no means is there a plan to eliminate the gunmen, Palestinian militia leaders say.