2 Killed in West Bank Settlement Attack

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli settlement in the West Bank early Saturday, killing a settler and wounding his daughter before being shot and killed, rescue officials said.

The attack came hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon revealed the scope of a proposal to withdraw settlers and soldiers from all of the Gaza Strip and four isolated Israeli enclaves in the northern West Bank.

The gunman infiltrated the settlement of Avnei Hefets shortly after midnight and opened fire on a house, killing a father and wounding his daughter, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. The settlement is 3 miles south of the Palestinian town of Tulkarem.

Officials at first said another settlement, Enav, had also been attack, but later said the report was erroneous.

An army spokesman had no immediate comment. It wasn’t clear who shot the assailant or if more attackers were involved.

Palestinians have repeatedly attacked Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during more than three years of fighting.

Palestinians want all of the West Bank and Gaza for a future independent state and demand that Israel remove all settlements on those territories. Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Mideast war.