JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel said the Palestinians violated an informal truce Thursday when gunmen attacked an Israeli family in a West Bank roadside ambush, killing a woman and seriously injuring her husband as their three children sat in the back seat.
A Palestinian security official in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two suspects have been detained for questioning in the shooting attack. It would mark the first time in a year of fighting that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s security forces have detained gunmen suspected of attacking Israelis.
Arafat spoke at length to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Thursday, and Peres met Thursday with top Palestinian officials Saeb Erekat and Ahmed Qureia, said Peres aide Yoram Dori and Palestinian officials.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened top Cabinet ministers late Thursday to decide whether to rescind Israel’s promise not to carry out military strikes. Israel had made the pledge after Arafat announced earlier this week that he ordered his security forces to prevent attacks on Israelis.
The United States has been pushing hard for a cease-fire, seen as an important step toward bringing Arab and Muslim states into an international anti-terror coalition. Secretary of State Colin Powell has spoken by phone repeatedly to leaders from both sides in recent days, including twice to Sharon on Thursday.
Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Palestinian security forces were making a “100 percent effort” to enforce a cease-fire.
Arafat’s Cabinet issued a statement Thursday saying that Arafat had ordered full compliance with the truce by his security forces, but charged that Israel had not reciprocated by lifting roadblocks in the West Bank and withdrawing tanks and troops.
In Thursday’s shooting attack, Palestinian gunmen fired from a truck at a car carrying an Israeli couple and their three children, ages four, two and three months, police said. The children escaped unharmed.
Sharon said after the shooting, which occurred near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank, that the Palestinian Authority ”did not live up to its commitment.”
The incident was expected to delay a meeting between Arafat and Peres that had been planned tentatively for later in the week. Sharon has said he would allow such a meeting to take place only after 48 hours of calm.
In other violence Thursday, Palestinians threw a hand grenade at an Israeli army post near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, the army said. Troops opened fire toward the assailants, killing a Palestinian passenger in a passing car, doctors said. Five soldiers were lightly hurt in the grenade attack.