A Palestinian, his assault rifle hidden in a prayer mat, killed two Israeli soldiers early on Tuesday at a West Bank checkpoint, but the attack failed to derail efforts toward an Israeli-Palestinian summit and a truce to halt three years of violence.
A meeting between the two prime ministers, Israel's Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Ahmed Qureia, could be a key to reaching a ceasefire and jump-starting the "road map" peace plan. Israel's foreign minister said it would take place next week, but Palestinians said results had to be assured in advance.
Continuing violence underscored the difficulty of enforcing quiet.
Three hours before the Palestinian gunman killed the two soldiers, Israeli tanks entered a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza, sparking a gun battle in which nine Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were wounded.
Near Bethlehem just after daybreak, a lone Palestinian, carrying an assault rifle hidden in a rolled-up Muslim prayer mat, approached an Israeli army checkpoint on a road leading from a bloc of West Bank settlements to Jerusalem and opened fire, killing one soldier instantly and mortally wounding another.
Sergeant Major Shlomi Belski was off duty and talking to his mother by cellphone when the attacker opened fire. Relatives told Israel Radio she heard the shots and listened as her son was evacuated to a hospital. He died en route.
The gunman escaped into Bethlehem, the military said. Soldiers entered the town to search, the first such raid since Israel handed security responsibility for Bethlehem back to the Palestinians in July.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which was an embarrassment to Qureia at a time when he is trying to win support for a ceasefire.
In response, Israeli Cabinet ministers repeated the demand -- backed by the "road map" -- that Palestinian militant groups must be dismantled.
Qureia, whose full Cabinet took office last week, has said his first priority is a negotiated truce to end three years of violence, not a crackdown.
A senior US administration official said on Tuesday that the Palestinians must have security forces capable of fighting terrorism, but Israel must create better conditions for Palestinians by lifting restrictions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity during US President George W. Bush's flight to England.
Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar took a hard line on a truce. In a meeting late on Tuesday, Zahar said, "Our position depends on our national demands. Otherwise we are not going to accept."
Zahar, whose group does not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East, would not define the demands. Earlier, Hamas officials said Israel must stop all military activities, halt construction of a security barrier along the West Bank and release Arafat from a two-year siege.
Egypt is at the forefront of efforts to forge a truce. Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met on Monday with Palestinian officials and faction leaders and invited them to Cairo for talks next week.
Egypt was instrumental in forging a truce that stopped most violence for six weeks in the summer before collapsing.
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