Israel said yesterday that a West Bank shooting that wounded an Israeli settler and her three children would not derail a Palestinian prisoner release intended as a gesture to keep a US-backed peace plan on track.
"I don't see anything that can change the decision," Israeli Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Israel Radio about tomorrow's scheduled release of hundreds of prisoners.
The attack on Sunday on the Israeli woman's car just outside Jerusalem was claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and rocked a three-month truce declared by militants on June 29.
Additional violence in the West Bank yesterday in which a Palestinian was killed threatened the ceasefire further.
The Israeli army said it shot and killed the Palestinian as he was trying to plant a bomb on a road near the West Bank city of Tulkarm.
"This is an assassination and we hold [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's government responsible for the consequences of assassinating a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades," the group said.
Israeli officials said the attack on the Israeli woman's car near the settlement of Har Gilo underscored the need for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to disarm militants rather than cut truce deals with them.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath called the shooting a violation of the truce but said Israel's hold on much of the West Bank made it impossible for Palestinian security forces to take effective action against militants in the area.
Reporting on tomorrow's sche-duled prisoner release, Israeli media said a list of some 440 prisoners was compiled, including about 200 from Islamic militant groups. Israeli officials had said 540 prisoners would be freed in a bid to bolster Abbas.
Palestinians seek a general release of all the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and militants have said anything short of that could jeopardize the truce.
The proximity of Sunday's attack to Bethlehem, from where Israeli forces pulled back a month ago under the "road map" peace plan, could complicate negotiations over further withdrawals from West Bank cities.
Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan wants Israeli forces to quit Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial capital that houses Arafat's headquarters, where he has been effectively confined by Israel's military grip on the city.
But Dahlan opposes an Israeli precondition for the pullback -- the transfer to the West Bank city of Jericho of 20 militants sheltering in Arafat's compound -- saying the transfer could endanger the truce.
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