Israel Kills Palestinian Militants

Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a sport-utility vehicle carrying Palestinian militants Thursday, killing two but inflicting only minor wounds on a defiant militia leader, who boasted afterward of his deadly attacks against Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced that he will meet next week with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in a bid to end nearly a year of violence. A Palestinian official said no date had been set. The two have met twice in recent months but failed to halt, or even slow, the fighting.

Hours after the helicopter raid and just a few miles from the scene, Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli soldier and seriously wounded a second, Israel’s army said. The militant Palestinian group targeted in the helicopter strike claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Thursday’s violence began when Israeli helicopters shot three missiles at Raed Karmi, 27, head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The militia leader was in the front passenger seat of a four-wheel-drive Nissan as it traveled near the Nur esh Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarm in the West Bank.

The first missile just missed the vehicle, prompting Karmi and his driver to leap out. The second missile scored a direct hit, killing two 20-year-old militants in the back. The smoking vehicle was reduced to charred and twisted metal.

Amid the continuing violence, parliament speaker Avraham Burg declared himself the new leader of Israel’s Labor Party, an outcome that could affect the stability of the nation’s broad-based unity government.

Despite Burg’s claim, the party had not formally announced a victor as of Thursday night, two full days after the balloting ended in the contest between Burg and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, 65.

A victory by the dovish 46-year-old Burg could endanger Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s national unity government. Labor joined Sharon’s government after he trounced the center-left party’s candidate, ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in February elections.