3 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Ambush

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli army foot patrol on a darkened road outside the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday night, killing three soldiers and wounding a fourth.

The ambush occurred a few hours after nightfall on a stretch of road near the large Jewish settlement of Ofra. The rocky, scrubby area has been the scene of ambushes and attacks on passing Israeli vehicles during the three years of Palestinian uprising.

Israeli soldiers ordered a curfew on the nearby Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud, and combed the countryside for the gunmen. The attackers also threw an explosive at the soldiers, according to some reports, and fled by car.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed resistance faction tied to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the ambush.

“This is proof that the resistance will respond to any Israeli crime,” an Al Aqsa commander told the Israeli news Web site Ynet. “All Israeli means of defense will fail when the resistance makes a decision to strike.”

The soldiers were gunned down at a time when Palestinians can scarcely afford to draw any more Israeli wrath. Already, Palestinians are being ruled by a skeleton emergency Cabinet, a prime minister who has threatened repeatedly to quit and an ailing president who is shunned by both the United States and Israel.

“The Palestinians don’t realize the disaster they are bringing upon themselves,” Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid told Israeli television shortly after the attack.

The crisis deepened last week, when Palestinian militants blew up a U.S. diplomatic convoy, killing three American security guards who were driving on the main road through the Gaza Strip. A handful of suspects have been arrested, but so far the question of who was targeting Americans -- and why -- remains unanswered.

Speaking in the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz predicted the disintegration of the fragile Palestinian Cabinet. Palestinians have been struggling to put together a new government ever since their first prime minister in history, Mahmoud Abbas, stepped down in frustration.

His successor, Ahmed Korei, has been battling with Arafat over control of the security services ever since he was tapped. Korei has said he would like to quit when the emergency Cabinet’s authority runs out at the end of this month.

The U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan, which just a few months ago inspired the major Palestinian groups to call a cease-fire and brought the Israeli and Palestinian premiers to the negotiating table, now seems more distant than ever.

This morning, an Israeli F-16 warplane bombed a building in eastern Gaza City, witnesses said. Early reports said the attack targeted the home of Abdullah Shami, a political leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group. It was unclear whether he was hurt or killed.

On Sunday in the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks pulled back out of sections of a dilapidated refugee camp near the Egyptian border. The withdrawal put an end to a four-day raid in which Israeli soldiers killed eight Palestinians and flattened more than a dozen homes.

Israel has been cracking down for more than a week on Rafah, where tunnels snake from Egypt, under the border and come to light within Palestinian homes. Israeli officials say the underground passages are used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Since Oct. 10, a total of 14 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, and more than 100 homes have been demolished, leaving 1,240 Palestinians homeless, according to the U.N. Israeli officials have said the reports of the damage have been exaggerated.

In Israel, hundreds of army reservists were called up Sunday in a controversial decision to strengthen the Israeli military active in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The rare emergency call-up was inspired by a high number of terrorism alerts, Israel Radio reported.