Palestinian bomber kills Israeli at checkpoint

By Muin Shadid

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian suicide bomber
blew himself up when soldiers tried to search him at a
roadblock in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing one
Israeli.

A passenger who had unwittingly shared the same taxi as the
bomber said soldiers stopped the car at an impromptu roadblock
and asked young men to get out.

“The man got out slowly, closed his jacket and blew himself
up,” said Nafez Shahin, 48.

Israel Radio said three Palestinians were also killed, but
Palestinian forces said they were unaware of more deaths.

The army said the roadblock had been set up in response to
intelligence warnings that a bomber was on his way to Israel to
strike during the ongoing Hanukkah holiday.

Emergency services said one Israeli was killed. Six
Palestinians and two Israelis were wounded.

The bombing dealt a blow to a shaky 10-month-old truce by
militants that is due to expire on Saturday, the last day of
2005. Growing violence has put peacemaking hopes on hold and
could influence forthcoming elections on both sides.

Israel Radio said the Islamic Jihad militant group carried
out the attack. The same group was behind the last suicide
bombing in Israel, when five Israelis were killed on December 6
at a shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya.

Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza could not confirm that the
group was responsible, but vowed to strike “in the depth of the
Zionist entity” to retaliate for Israel’s imposition of a new
“no-go zone” in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel shelled Gaza on Thursday to enforce the buffer zone
designed to prevent militants firing rockets from the Gaza
Strip, abandoned by Israeli troops three months ago after 38
years of occupation.

ELECTIONS LOOM

Optimism that the pullout would be a step to reviving talks
on Palestinian statehood has shrunk, with both Israelis and
Palestinians busy preparing for elections early next year that
could reshape the landscape for peacemaking.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is battling to win a
third term against rightist opponents who condemn his widely
popular withdrawal from Gaza, saying it effectively rewarded
Palestinians for their uprising and would encourage more
attacks.

Israel said on Thursday it would continue the shelling and
air strikes on Gaza for as long as it took to stop Palestinian
militants firing rockets.

Palestinians condemned the buffer zone as a re-occupation
of land evacuated by Israel and said police would remain
deployed in the area despite Israeli requests that they leave
for their own safety.

“The Israeli determination to implement this plan will
widen the cycle of the conflict and will not achieve the goals
which Israeli occupation forces seek to achieve,” the
Palestinian Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Any major surge of bloodshed could also complicate
Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and even force a
delay.

Earlier this week, Abbas tried to get militant leaders in
Gaza to agree to halt the cross-border rocket fire and renew a
pledge to follow a ceasefire that brought 10 months of relative
calm.

But a leader of Islamic Jihad said he did not believe there
would be a ceasefire extension.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)