Sky News:

Four Israelis Killed Ahead Of Peace Talks
Wednesday September 01, 2010
Tom Bonnett, Sky News Online

Four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, have been killed by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank on the eve of Middle East peace talks in Washington.

The two men and two women were ambushed while driving near the Jewish settlement Kiryat Arba near Hebron, which has been a flashpoint of violence in the past.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "Obviously it was terrorist attack."

The country's Channel Two television said they had been shot from a passing vehicle.

Sky News sources said Israeli police are now on a nationwide status of high alert.

Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack and have been commended by Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

"Hamas praises the attack and regards it as a natural response to the crimes of the occupation," said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.

Hearing the news on arrival in the US for the peace talks, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "My heart goes out to those killed in the West Bank and their loved ones."

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said Israel would "exact a price" from those who shot dead four Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank earlier in the day.

"This is an apparent attempt by lowly terrorists to sabotage the attempt to achieve a diplomatic process and to try to hurt the chances of the talks opening in Washington," Mr Barak said.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders are due to meet President Barack Obama for dinner at the White House tomorrow.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Mr Netanyahu will join Mr Obama for the discussions.

Formal talks are due to begin on Sept 2 - their first direct negotiations for nearly two years.

They are also set to be joined by Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for a White House dinner intended to set the stage for the launch of the formal talks.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab nations with peace deals with Israel.

Mr Netanyahu said protecting Israel's security interests will be his top priority in the negotiations.

Before leaving for Washington he told his Likud Party he would seek "real arrangements on the ground" that ensure the security of Israelis.

"True peace is not a short break between wars, it's not a short break between terror attacks," he said.

"True peace is something that persists dozens of years, that stands well for generations."

President Barack Obama hopes to forge a peace agreement within one year.


this from Debka:

Hamas gunmen murder four Israelis in ambush near Hebron
DEBKAfile Special Report August 31, 2010, 8:32 PM

Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli civilians - all residents of Bet Haggai - in their car at the Beni Naim junction near Kiryat Arba Tuesday night, Aug. 31. They are identified as Yitzhak (47) and Tali (45) Ames, parents of six and Cochava Even Haim (37) and Avishai Schindler (34) who were expecting their second child. The gunmen fired a hail of automatic fire from a following car, then approached the bullet-riddled vehicle and fired again at point-blank range to make sure their victims were dead.

debkafile's counter-terror sources report: The IDF and security authorities failed to anticipate this attack on a West Bank highway although Hamas had threatened to unleash terror against Israel to sabotage the Israel-Palestinian talks about to start in Washington this week. This was reported by debkafile last Wednesday.

Tuesday night, Hamas took responsibility for the murderous ambush and warned it was just the beginning and worse was still to come.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who received the news two hours before he landed in the US capital to join the summit with President Barak Obama and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, ordered the defense minister and chief and staff to hunt the killers and their masters down and punish them without regard to diplomatic considerations. He refrained from ordering them to target Hamas command centers in Damascus and Gaza from which the attack was planned.

In a special message, Netanyahu said he "strengthened the hands of our brothers and sisters in Judea and Samaria." West Bank Jewish leaders announced the resumption of building Wednesday Sept. 1 and an end to the government construction freeze due to expire on Sept. 26. They said that every Israel attempt to attain peace in fifteen years had been met with brutal bloodshed.

Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi visited the scene of the attack as the hunt for the perpetrators got underway in the Hebron vicinity.