Deadly violence again shook Israel and the Palestinian territories late Thursday, only a day after hopes for peace got a boost at a summit in Jordan.
The killing of two Israelis and two Palestinians came as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat cast doubts on the US-led summit from which he was excluded, saying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had offered Palestinians nothing "on the ground."
PHOTO: AP
The deaths, punctuated by a call from Egypt's foreign minister for an end to the armed Palestinian struggle, gave the international peace road map its first real test and were followed by Palestinian mortar fire and fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Arafat's criticism came as hardliners on both sides indicated they could fiercely oppose the pledges made at Wednesday's Aqaba summit by the right-wing Sharon and his moderate Palestinian counterpart and Arafat rival, Mahmud Abbas.
On the ground, two militants of the radical Islamic group Hamas preparing a suicide attack were shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank on Thursday night, military sources said.
They were killed in a firefight with troops who ambushed them in a house near the town of Tulkarem, and a third Palestinian was wounded.
However, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group said the slain militants were members of his group.
A senior Arafat aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, reacted to the killings by saying Israel had already returned to "its assassination policy after the two summits," referring to Aqaba and another US-led peace meeting in Egypt.
Earlier, Israeli police said they discovered the bodies of an Israel man and a teenage girl whom they suspect were murdered by Palestinian militants in a farming village just west of Jerusalem.
Early Friday, three mortar rounds were fired at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and a fourth at an Israeli army position, but caused no casualties, an army spokesman said.
And soldiers came under heavy attack after moving in to destroy two tunnels under the Egyptian border in the Gaza town of Rafah. None of them was hurt, but a Palestinian was thought to have been wounded.
Commenting on the Aqaba meeting, Arafat said: "Until now, Sharon has done nothing on the ground. What does it mean if Sharon removes one caravan and after that tells us he has removed a settlement?"
Despite the comment by Arafat, who has been largely sidelined by Washington and Israel, Sharon was reportedly set to hold in the coming days his third meeting with Abbas in recent weeks.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and his aides were also to discuss the dismantling of rogue settlement outposts that Sharon promised at the Aqaba summit..
Sharon is facing anger from Jewish settlers over his pledge to dismantle some of their illegal outposts in order to kick-start the road map, while Abbas has roused the ire of radical militant groups over his vow to end the armed uprising.
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