Published: Jun 24, 2005 HEBRON, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli hitchhiker and wounded four other people in a drive-by shooting spree Friday in the West Bank, according to the army and rescue services.
An upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence is threatening a truce reached in February and highlights the difficulties Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas faces in reining in militant groups.
The gunmen fired from their car at a group of Israeli hitchhikers as they were getting into a car, not far from the Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai, near Hebron, the army said. One teenager was killed and three others were wounded.
The gunmen drove on and minutes later fired at an Israeli car, lightly wounding one passenger, the army said.
The attack came as Palestinian police swept through the West Bank town of Jenin in a hunt for militants who killed an officer in a shooting on a police station on Thursday. During one arrest raid, a gunbattle erupted between a militant and security forces, another sign of the lawlessness Abbas is confronting.
"Continued acts of Palestinian terrorism demonstrate to everyone the necessity that the Palestinian Authority fulfill its obligation to the international community and start effective and ongoing measures against the terrorist organizations who are trying to destroy any chance of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed this week that the army would act to stop militants if the Palestinian Authority fails to do so.
Israel and the United States have been pressuring Abbas to rein in and disarm militants, but he has so far refused to do so, preferring instead to co-opt them and fold them into his security forces. Abbas fears a broad crackdown on militants would lead to internal unrest and possibly civil war.
In Jenin, however, Palestinian security forces tried to hunt down and arrest Said Amin, the militant accused of leading the group that carried out Thursday's attack on the police station. After firing on the police station and killing the officer, the group headed to the house of Jamal Shati, a Palestinian lawmaker, and burned his car.
During one raid, one militant holed up in a building fired on the dozens of officers who came to arrest him. After a 10-minute gunbattle, police stormed the militant's hiding place and arrested him. No one was injured.
Throughout the day another seven militants were arrested without incident, Palestinian security services said. But Amin - a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Abbas' ruling Fatah movement - remained at large.
In other violence Friday:
-An Israeli motorist was shot and lightly wounded when Palestinian gunmen fired at his car near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the army said.
-An Israeli was lightly wounded by shrapnel when militants in the Gaza Strip fired a mortar at the settlement of Netzarim, the army said.
AP-ES-06-24-05 1253EDT http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB1CIWTCAE.html