AL QUDS, June 20: At least one Palestinian gunman killed four Israelis in an attack on a house inside a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank on Thursday, a medical worker at the scene said.

“There are four people whose deaths have been confirmed,” Israeli medic Neri Ketoa told Israeli Channel Two television. He said at least two other people were wounded.

At least one gunman entered a house in the settlement of Itamar, near the West Bank city of Nablus, and exchanged fire with Israeli forces.

V ARAFAT CALL REJECTED: Two radical Palestinian groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, on Thursday turned down a call from Yasser Arafat for a halt to suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

“The statement (from Arafat) was made under international pressure. We call on the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its aggressions,” said Khaled el-Baatsh, a Jihad leader.

“The resistance will continue as long as Israel continues to occupy our lands,” he said.

A Hamas statement said “as long as the occupation is here, our people have the right to struggle against it”.

Hamas claimed it carried out Tuesday’s suicide bombing on a bus in occupied Al Quds that left 19 dead, plus the bomber, and triggered an Israeli army reoccupation of Palestinian towns in the West Bank.

“We do not think the Palestinian Authority or any other faction will accept any abuses by the Zionist enemy in our territories and villages,” Hamas leader Abu Haniya said.

He demanded that Palestinian secular and religious factions, as well as the Authority, “cooperate in order to face the enemy and make its policies and diktats fail”.

In the wake of Tuesday and Wednesday’s suicide bombings, Arafat called for a freeze on suicide bombings and shooting rampages inside Israel.

“I must insist on the need to completely halt these operations, which we have condemned many times and against which we have taken decisive measure in order to preserve the national interest,” he said in a statement.

Wednesday’s blast delayed a highly anticipated speech by US President George W. Bush, which was expected to sketch out Washington’s vision of Middle East peace.

It is believed to include steps towards creating a Palestinian state with temporary borders. —AFP