4 Israelis Killed in West Bank

A pair of Palestinian gunmen burst into the dining hall of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Friday night, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades as seminary students gathered for a Sabbath dinner. Four Israelis were killed and eight others were wounded, Israeli authorities said.

Both of the gunmen were killed as well -- one during the attack on the Otniel settlement, south of the town of Hebron, and the second after a swiftly assembled army manhunt, in which soldiers using helicopters and searchlights scoured the steep, rocky hills surrounding the settlement.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured in the firefight that broke out when the second gunman was tracked down near the Palestinian village of Dahariya, the army said.

The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, which came one day after Israeli troops killed at least seven Palestinians, including a local Islamic Jihad leader, in a series of raids that ranged across the West Bank. Palestinians said at least two of the dead were bystanders.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government called the settlement attack part of a systematic terror campaign against Israelis.

“This is an ongoing war -- it’s 24 hours, around the clock,” said Raanan Gissin, a senior Sharon aide. He dismissed any connection between Thursday’s wide-ranging army raids and the attack on the settlement.

The army said there have been 21 attempts by Palestinian militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the past month. Last week, the rabbi of a settlement in the Gaza Strip was killed in an ambush as he drove on a Gaza road with his wife and six children.

For observant Jews, the start of the Sabbath is the most important occasion of the week, often marked by singing, dancing, prayers and a celebratory meal. Witnesses said a large group was dining together at about 8 p.m. at the Otniel settlement when the gunmen, who apparently entered through the kitchen, took them by surprise.

Israeli news reports said most of the dead and injured were students at the settlement’s yeshiva, or religious seminary.

Otniel is the site of a well-known yeshiva that combines Torah studies with military preparation and has been a training ground for many elite officers of the Israel Defense Forces. Ultra-Orthodox Jews can apply for a deferment from Israel’s mandatory military service, but some opt to enlist, continue their religious studies and go on to serve together in close-knit units.

The Hebron area has been a frequent flashpoint for violence during 27 months of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last month, 12 soldiers and settlement security officers were killed in a Palestinian ambush along a pathway leading from a settlement on the outskirts of Hebron to a disputed shrine inside the heavily Palestinian city.

Hours before the attack at Otniel, the funerals for Palestinians killed in Thursday’s raids brought impassioned calls for vengeance. Separately, the militant group Hamas held a rally in a soccer stadium in the Gaza Strip that drew 30,000 people.

At it, the ailing spiritual leader of the group, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, promised that “the march of martyrs will move forward.” Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis.

Israeli troops continued a campaign of arrests of militant leaders across the West Bank on Friday. The army said among those picked up were a would-be suicide bomber in the Askar refugee camp near the northern West Bank town of Nablus.

Israel credits its policy of hunting down Palestinian militant leaders before they can stage attacks for a relatively long period of calm inside Israel proper.

The last major attack occurred Nov. 21 in Jerusalem, when a suicide bomber from the West Bank town of Bethlehem boarded a bus on the city’s outskirts and killed 11 Israelis, several of them youngsters on their way to school. Early today, a car bomb went off in downtown Jerusalem, causing no injuries, Israel Radio reported. A suspect in the bombing was arrested.

Palestinians say the aggressive Israeli campaign to arrest or kill wanted men, with commandos swooping down on fugitives almost daily in the middle of crowded cities, towns and refugee camps, poses a constant danger to Palestinian civilians.

Throughout more than two years of intense fighting, Jewish settlements have been particular targets of armed Palestinian attacks. Many Palestinians consider the settlements, built on land they want for their future state, to lie at the heart of the conflict.

This week, Israel announced tougher measures to protect the West Bank settlements. The army said it intends to set up buffer zones around them, inside which soldiers would be permitted to fire on any intruders without first ascertaining whether they pose a threat.