Associated Press
JERUSALEM – In one of the bloodiest days of the 17-month Palestinian uprising, gunmen shot and killed six Israelis in a West Bank assault Tuesday, and Israeli raids left eight Palestinians dead. A suicide bomber died earlier in the day.
The deadly violence continued early today as Israeli warplanes, gunships and missile-equipped helicopters fired at Yasser Arafat’s office on the Gaza coast, killing four guards, witnesses said.
In a separate raid today, Israeli tanks shelled two Palestinian police outposts in the West Bank town of Nablus, killing five policemen, Palestinians said.
The latest Israeli raid came a day after Palestinian attackers entered a building close to an Israeli roadblock near Ein Arik on the West Bank and opened fire on the occupants, killing six Israeli soldiers, then escaped, Israeli television said.
The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement, distributed leaflets claiming responsibility for the attack, Palestinians said.
Tuesday began with a Palestinian suicide bomber blowing himself up seconds after he was pushed off an Israeli bus by its suspicious driver near the northern West Bank settlement of Mehola, police said. There were no other casualties.
In one Israeli strike on Tuesday, helicopter gunships fired three missiles at the office of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the crowded Jebalya refugee camp, killing two Palestinians and critically wounding four, including a 10-year-old girl, doctors said.
In the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, Israeli tank shells hit homes, killing three Palestinian civilians, including a mother and her 14-year-old daughter, Palestinian witnesses said.
Later Tuesday, one of two Palestinians who shot at soldiers near a junction in the Gaza Strip was killed by return fire, the army said.
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