Murders Israel

Israeli police asked Palestinian police to help investigate the stabbing deaths of two Israeli women found in the West Bank on Friday, a police spokeswoman said. The women's bodies were found by hikers in the Wadi Qelt nature reserve in the West Bank, about three miles from the Palestinian-ruled Jericho enclave. Israeli police said they were investigating the possibility that the slayings were by Palestinians and were politically motivated.

Thousands of Jewish settlers wearing skullcaps and side arms on Monday mourned the killing of a young Israeli couple by suspected Palestinian terrorists--in a poignant reminder that Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu's tough campaign talk has not changed reality. Their bodies wrapped snugly in Israeli flags, Yaron and Efrat Unger were buried next to fellow Jewish casualties in the long Israeli-Palestinian battle over West Bank land.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Jewish settlers as "heroes" and promised to strengthen settlements Thursday at the funeral of a woman and her son, who were killed in a drive-by shooting. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Syrian-based Palestinian group opposed to the Israel-Palestinian peace agreements, claimed responsibility for the Wednesday shootings and linked them to Israel's settlement policies.

An Israeli Cabinet minister on Saturday announced his opposition to the government's controversial decision to increase economic aid to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, saying he believes the army would be unable to give adequate protection to settlements built near Arab population centers.

Reacting to the first lethal terrorist attack in Israel since he assumed power last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government took a hard line Friday, hinting that Israel might have to go into Palestinian-controlled areas to hunt down the attackers. "There will be absolutely no compromise in the war against terrorism and no restrictions on our security forces," the government said in a statement late Friday after an overnight drive-by shooting that left two Israelis dead.

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a convoy of Israeli gasoline tankers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing one Israeli security guard and wounding a second, in a direct challenge to both Israel and the PLO, which administers the region. The guerrillas approached the private Israeli security vehicle as it escorted two gasoline tankers into the Gaza Strip, firing automatic rifles at it, according to Israeli military sources.

Two Israelis were killed and five injured Sunday night when a packed bus was ambushed near Kiryat Arba, the militant Jewish settlement on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Hebron. At least two of the injured were children, Israel Radio reported. They were both said to be in serious condition. The ambush--thought to have been carried out by Palestinians--is the first serious attack on an Israeli target since Jan.

Undercover Israeli security forces shot and killed four Palestinians on Wednesday night in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, continuing a New Year's surge in violence that has accompanied a grim stalemate in negotiations over Palestinian self-rule. In another exchange of fire Wednesday at the Erez crossing at the Gaza Strip border, Israeli soldiers wounded four Palestinians, including two police officers, after reporting that the Palestinians had shot at an Israeli position.

Israel's army blamed Palestinian militants for a knife attack that left a Jewish settler from England dead and seriously wounded his pregnant American wife. The woman, 28-year-old Mara Fry of Chicago, lost her baby as a result of the pre-dawn stabbings in Maaleh Mikhmash, about six miles east of Ramallah. Residents identified the slain man as Daniel Fry, 28.

Israeli security forces shot and killed two fugitive Palestinians Tuesday as the two men got off a bus in a West Bank town near Jerusalem, bystanders said. Residents of Al Ram took to the streets in protest, and soldiers fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. Witnesses said Israeli security forces posed as vegetable vendors in a van near a bus stop. When the bus stopped, the security forces asked two young Palestinians to step forward.