AFULA, Israel (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Two Palestinian Resistance men sprayed a bus station and open-air market with gunfire Tuesday, killing two Israelis and wounding 14 others before being shot to death.
Later, a Palestinian attacker in Gaza fired at a car and killed an Israeli woman, the occupation authorities said. Three other Israelis were wounded. Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed the Resistance men, Palestinian security and Israeli occupation sources said.
An Israeli occupation army spokesman said the attacker fired at the convoy and threw grenades. In a faxed message to The Associated Press, the Resistance Hamas group took responsibility.
One of two American mediators, now in the territories, retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, said the bloodshed underscored the need for a truce after 14 months of fighting.
Two Palestinian Resistance groups - Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Brigades linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement - claimed responsibility for the joint attack to avenge the targeted killings of Palestinians.
The Palestinian Cabinet issued a statement condemning the two attacks ``and all operations targeting Israeli civilians.''
The Resistance men were from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, about 10 miles south of Afula. They slipped into Israel, reportedly in a stolen car with Israeli plates, despite a strict security closure of the West Bank and of Jenin in particular. Only a few hours earlier, Israeli occupation troops had withdrawn from areas in Jenin, the last of six West Bank towns Israel partly occupied for several weeks.
In a video issued by Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Brigades showing the gunmen sitting in a room in front of political banners, one of the assailants, identified as Mustafa Abu Srieh of Islamic Jihad, said: ``We hope our people will continue in the path of the holy liberation war.''
The second attacker, Abdel Karim Abu Nafa, 20, was a Palestinian policeman and Fatah activist. His participation was seen as a serious challenge to Arafat, whose Palestinian Authority has urged Palestinians not to carry out attacks in revenge for Israel's killing last week of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a Hamas activist accused by Israeli of masterminding bombings that killed scores of Israelis.
Fatah Resistance men have targeted internationally illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent months, but have largely refrained from carrying out attacks in Israel.
Tuesday's shooting came on the first full day of a new truce mission by Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns.
After several failed truce efforts, the mediators face a hard task. Both sides say they are willing to commit to a cease-fire, but each accuses the other of being the aggressor who must take the first step.
MAP CAPTION:
Palestinian Resistance men launched an attack just as a new U.S. peace mission began November 27, 2001, killing two Israelis and wounding 50 in a shooting spree at a crowded bus station and market in northern Israel. Witnesses said two Resistance men burst out of the main bus terminal in the city of Afula firing automatic weapons and shot one of the Israelis at point-blank range before occupation troops chased them and shot them dead in a nearby parking lot. (Reuters Graphic)