JERUSALEM — Ambushes, grenade battles and suicide bombings claimed at least six lives Tuesday and drowned out fledgling U.S. efforts to push Israelis and Palestinians toward a meaningful cease-fire.
Palestinian gunmen killed two Jewish settlers who were on their way to the funeral of a third settler killed earlier in the day. The gunmen overtook the women's van on a road several miles south of Jerusalem and opened fire. One of the dead was an American.
Four other occupants of the van were wounded. The shooters fled to nearby Bethlehem, a West Bank city under Palestinian rule.
Later, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a failed attempt to wipe out Israeli soldiers guarding a fortified post in the Gaza Strip. One soldier was wounded, and others opened fire and killed the bomber's companion as he hurled grenades at the post.
A third Palestinian was killed in a shooting at an Israeli army checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jericho. And a large bomb exploded on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, tying up traffic for hours but injuring no one in the first such attack on the country's central east-west axis.
The violence overshadowed the continued shuttle diplomacy of U.S. special envoy William Burns, the Bush administration's new point man on the Middle East, and it increased pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to retaliate.
Israelis and Palestinians held their first security meeting in weeks Tuesday, but no progress was reported. The top official from each side canceled his appearance at the last minute.
Adding fuel to the fire, Israel's housing minister announced that plans to build 700 homes at Jewish settlements will proceed, despite mounting international pressure to freeze the expansions.
And in another development, Palestinian militants briefly kidnapped an American journalist and a British photographer as a warning that U.S. and British citizens will be punished for their governments' support of the Jewish state.
Sharon declared a unilateral cease-fire a week ago in response to recommendations issued by an international commission chaired by former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine). The Palestinians maintain that the cease-fire is a publicity gimmick; Israelis note that Palestinian violence has only increased since Sharon's announcement. Each new Israeli death puts additional pressure on the prime minister to respond with force.
