3 Killed in and Near West Bank

An explosion killed at least two Palestinians in their car Friday in what police said was a bomb attack gone awry in northern Israel, and an Israeli woman was fatally stabbed by Palestinian teenagers in a Jerusalem forest.

Meanwhile, sources said a military court had convicted three Israeli soldiers of assaulting Palestinians, in the first such prosecution since the uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000.

One soldier received a 14-day jail term; another, 45 days. Both were demoted and ordered to perform up to three months of menial labor.

The military prosecutor has appealed the sentences, saying the punishment was too lenient, the sources said. The third soldier is to be sentenced next week.

The soldiers were accused of kicking and slapping Palestinians and poking them with their rifle butts at a military checkpoint in the West Bank, part of a crippling blockade Israel has imposed on Palestinian areas.

In Friday’s blast, Israeli police said, two or possibly three Palestinians were killed in a car on a road close to the West Bank.

Apparently the car’s occupants planned to detonate the bomb in an Israeli city, but it went off prematurely, police spokesman Yoram Zamir said.

The victim in the Jerusalem attack was stabbed several times as she was strolling in the Peace Forest, which lies between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of the city.

She died later at a hospital. Several masked Palestinians were seen running from the stabbing scene, and four were apprehended by police. One of them collapsed and died just after his arrest, authorities said.