A seven-year-old Israeli girl died after being shot by Palestinian gunmen in an attack which also injured her sister, brother and grandfather, Israeli hospital sources said on Wednesday.
Noam Leibowicz was shot and killed while travelling with her family in a car close to the border of the West Bank on a main road crossing Israeli territory, Israeli medical sources said late on Tuesday.
A woman who was also in the car was also being treated for shock.
The gunman opened fire on the car, causing it to veer off the road at the Ayal junction, several kilometres from the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya.
The car was driving on a road on the Israeli side of the 1967 Green Line which separates Israel from the West Bank. The Israeli army mounted a search for the attacker and imposed a curfew on Qalqiliya.
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip a hospital source said Hamed Habbush (45) had died of wounds received when an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at the car of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
Rantissi escaped with wounds, but four other people, including Habbush, were killed in the June 10 strike.
The latest deaths brought to 3 349 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, including 2 523 Palestinians and 766 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reacted to the latest shooting by saying if the Palestinian Authority did not start taking responsibility for militant groups the Middle East peace roadmap would fail.
”What happened tonight shows that with all the efforts of Israel to stop the violence, the Palestinian Authority has still not shown the way to put an end to this campaign of terror,” he said.
”If the Palestinians cannot control their own terror groups, the chances for progress with the roadmap are practically nil.”
The internationally-backed peace roadmap is designed to end the 32 months of bloodshed and pave the way for a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005.
Tuesday’s shooting came amid so far fruitless efforts to secure an agreement for a ceasefire from radical Palestinian groups. – Sapa-AFP