A Palestinian gunman wounded 16 Israelis in a rush hour shooting spree in Jerusalem's main shopping street on Tuesday after Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
Police shot dead the gunman, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The militant group claimed responsibility for the attack near the scene of past carnage in the holy city.
The latest bloodshed and threats of retaliation from both sides dealt a new blow to US-led hopes of ending almost 16 months of bloodshed that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people since a Palestinian uprising began.
``I saw hate in his eyes -- calm, but full of hate,'' said Hanan Ben-Naim, one of the policemen who killed the attacker, whose blood, like those of the passersby he shot, formed red puddles on rain-swept Jaffa Road.
Israel said it would retaliate ``appropriately.'' Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN: ``We don't condone the killing of civilians -- Palestinians and Israelis.''
In a separate interview with Reuters, Erekat said it was time for US Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni to resume his cease-fire mission and put into motion a truce-to-talks plan proposed by a panel led by former US senator George Mitchell.
The militant Islamic movement Hamas had said earlier on Tuesday the Israeli raid in Nablus that killed four of its members opened the door to a ``fierce war'' with Israel.
The Hamas statement made clear the group considered its freeze on suicide attacks to be over.
The Jerusalem shooting was the first major Palestinian attack in the city since a double suicide bombing killed 10 people on the nearby Ben Yehuda pedestrian street on December 1.
Officials initially put the number of people wounded by the gunman at 20 but later revised the figure to 16.
WEST BANK RAID
Israeli soldiers killed the four Hamas members in a pre-dawn raid on an apartment building in the West Bank city of Nablus in a sweep for militants after discovering what the army said was a bomb laboratory.
The Jaffa Road shooting came five days after a Palestinian gunman killed six people at a Jewish girl's bat mitzva, or coming-of-age party, in the northern Israeli city of Hadera.
The army said the raid in Nablus was in retaliation for the Hadera attack, carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which said it was avenging the killing of one of its leaders.
The army said the Hamas militants in Nablus died in a gunfight but the governor of the town said they were killed in their beds in cold blood.
``This massacre (in Nablus) will open the door widely for a fierce war that will reach Zionist gangs everywhere, using all methods,'' Hamas said in a statement.
An anonymous caller identifying himself as a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades told Reuters the Jerusalem shooting was ``in response to all the Israeli attacks and assassinations.''
Inside a bloodstained pharmacy on Jaffa Road, customers hid in a storage closet when the gunman began shooting after getting out of a car. Israel Television said he fired 58 bullets.
``He fired inside the store or next to it,'' the owner said. ''That storage closet saved my life.''
Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said a lone Palestinian gunman had opened fire at people waiting at a bus stop.
``He tried to run away. After a short chase of about 15 meters (police) succeeded in killing him,'' he told reporters.
SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE
Hours after the raid in Nablus, Palestinian police shot and killed a Palestinian during clashes with stone-throwing protesters who broke into a prison to demand the release of jailed militants.
Palestinian police in at the main prison in Nablus fired into the air and lobbed at least one stun grenade at the crowd, which set fire to three police vehicles.
Israel's retaliation for the Hadera attack also included sending troops to Tulkarm in the West Bank Monday in a raid which it called a strike against a ``large terror infrastructure'' but which was condemned by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Israeli forces began pulling out of Tulkarm Tuesday, leaving houses taken over in a 30-hour raid in which the army arrested militants. Witnesses said Israeli tanks maintained their positions in a nearby Palestinian-ruled village and the army said its forces would continue to encircle the city.
At least 816 Palestinians and 246 Israelis have been killed in the uprising.
(China Daily January 23, 2002)
