- ARIEL, West Bank (Reuters)
- A Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a Jewish settlement Sunday, killing
three Israeli officers and wounding 20 other people.
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- The Palestinian was punched, kicked and shot by bystanders
but managed to detonate the bomb he was carrying before he died. The Israeli
army said the soldiers and civilians had managed to prevent heavier casualties.
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- The attack coincided with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
biggest cabinet dispute since taking office 19 months ago -- a crisis over
settlement-funding that threatened to shatter his ruling coalition.
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- In Tel Aviv, the leadership of the Labor Party, Sharon's
main partner in the government, convened to discuss whether to vote against
the 2003 state budget, a move that would lead it out of the coalition and
raise prospects for an early election.
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- Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility
for the blast at a petrol station at Ariel, one of the biggest Jewish settlements
in the occupied West Bank.
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- There are some 145 Jewish settlements in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip in what the international community regards as a violation
of international law, a position Israel disputes.
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- "I saw the gas station manager and his worker had
spotted the terrorist and then they grabbed him," witness Yehiel Hazan
told Israel Radio at Ariel, 15 miles east of Tel Aviv and home to some
17,000 settlers.
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- Shahar Keshet, a motorist who stopped for petrol, said
he ran from his car with his pistol and approached the Palestinian.
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- "We started to punch and kick him in the head. But
he didn't lose consciousness," Keshet told Israel's Channel Two television.
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- One of those grappling with the Palestinian shouted,
"I see an explosives belt," and Keshet said: "I put a bullet
or two in (the bomber's) head without a second thought."
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- Police officers at the scene said soldiers and another
bystander also shot at the Palestinian, who managed to trigger the explosives
before dying. But Channel Two said police were investigating whether the
gunfire had detonated the bomb.
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- ARMY SAYS HEAVIER CASUALTIES AVERTED
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- Shortly after the Ariel incident, Israeli soldiers killed
two al-Aqsa militants in the West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinians called
it an assassination. The army said the men died in a gun battle in which
a soldier was wounded.
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- The army said a major, a lieutenant and a non-commissioned
officer were killed in the settlement blast, which occurred as dozens of
soldiers packed a snack bar at the petrol station on their return to West
Bank bases after weekend leave.
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- "The alertness of the civilians and quick reaction
of the soldiers prevented a bigger and more serious attack," said
Colonel David Menachem, an army commander in the West Bank.
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- The explosion followed a suicide bombing Monday that
killed 14 in Israel and prompted a large army sweep for militants in the
West Bank city of Jenin.
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- Troops shot dead a Palestinian in Jenin Sunday. His family
said he was unarmed and standing outside their house when he was shot.
The army said he was a gunman.
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- Commenting on the Ariel bombing, Sean McCormack, a spokesman
for the White House National Security Council, said: "It is a tragedy
whenever innocent life is lost. It's very important that the Palestinians
do everything in their power to end acts of terror."
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- REVENGE
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- Al-Aqsa brigades identified the Ariel bomber as Mohammed
Shqeir, 19, from Nablus.
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- "We swear, oh people, to avenge the blood of the
innocent martyrs and we swear that there will be more martyrdom operations
until the occupation is driven off our land," the brigades said in
a statement.
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- At least 1,633 Palestinians and 620 Israelis have been
killed since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in September 2000.
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- The latest bloodshed followed an unfruitful U.S. peace
mission last week and came as Sharon was locked in the crisis over money
allocated in the 2003 budget to Jewish settlements on occupied land.
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- Labor has threatened to bolt the government unless funds
destined for settlements were diverted to social spending.
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- The center-left party wants about $147 million of the
allocation for settlers to go to pensioners, one-parent families, students
and poor towns.
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- If no compromise is reached, Labor ministers might resign
after a preliminary parliamentary vote on the budget on Wednesday or be
fired by Sharon.
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- Sharon, who has made a "government of national unity"
the cornerstone of his leadership, would be widely expected to dissolve
the coalition if Labor left and take advantage of his strong showing in
opinion polls to seek a new public mandate.
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- Elections would follow 90 days later, 10 months earlier
than planned.
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- Israel was forced to chop other spending in 2002 and
2003 to offset higher defense spending to combat the Palestinian uprising,
and also because of a steep fall in tax revenues due to a worsening domestic
recession.
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