2 Israelis Killed, 5 Injured on Road to Gaza Settlement

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a group of Israelis traveling to the main Jewish settlement block in the Gaza Strip late Saturday, killing a married couple and wounding five other people.

One of the assailants was shot dead by Israeli troops, an army spokeswoman said. The second gunman fled the scene, but then died of wounds suffered in a firefight that also left two Israeli soldiers hurt. Troops recovered the body hours later.

A trio of Palestinian militant groups -- Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and a lesser-known organization that calls itself the Popular Resistance Committee -- claimed responsibility for the shooting, just before midnight about a mile from the main crossing used by Jewish settlers. The attack came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was concluding a three-day visit to the region.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman who goes by the name of Abu Abdullah told reporters in Gaza City that “a group of our martyrs ... carried out an attack on an Israeli convoy, causing many casualties.”

The attack, less than a month before Israel is to begin uprooting the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, was the latest complication to beset the planned pullout. Israeli officials have said the withdrawal will not be carried out under fire.

Over the last two weeks, Palestinian militants have lobbed more than 100 mortar shells and rockets at the Gaza settlements and nearby Israeli villages, but this was the first deadly shooting in months on the heavily guarded road that leads to the settlement enclave.

An attack of this magnitude could easily trigger major retaliation, an Israeli security official said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet was to discuss a potential military response today when it holds its regular weekly meeting.

After a rocket attack killed a woman inside Israel this month, the Israeli military massed thousands of troops outside Gaza and spent several days poised for a ground offensive. The threat of a confrontation eased when the rocket fire tapered off.

The couple slain in Saturday night’s shooting did not live in the Gaza settlements, the army said.

The area has been declared a closed military zone, but guests of those living in the settlements are allowed to obtain permits and travel there.

In addition, however, hundreds of settler activists have been making their way clandestinely into the Gaza settlements with the aim of forcibly resisting evacuation by Israeli troops and police.

One of the wounded was a member of the security squad of one of the Gaza settlements, the army said.

Adding to tensions, a would-be suicide bomber managed to slip out of Gaza but was apprehended a short distance inside Israel, Israeli authorities disclosed Saturday.

The assailant, an 18-year-old man from the Jabaliya refugee camp named Jihad Shehada, told his captors that he had been planning to carry out a bombing in Tel Aviv.

He tried unsuccessfully to detonate a vest lined with explosives when troops cornered him Friday in a field near the Gaza border fence, Israeli officials said.

An associate of Shehada whom authorities labeled his handler was also arrested. Authorities identified him as a Palestinian who had an Israeli identity card because he was married to an Israeli Arab woman.

Special correspondent Fayed abu Shammalah contributed to this report from Gaza City.