TEL AVIV, June 20: An Israeli settler was killed and his wife and his American parents were wounded in a shooting in the West Bank on Friday, medical sources said, just as US Secretary of State Colin Powell was meeting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Zvi Goldstein, from the settlement of Eli, died while being evacuated to a hospital where the three other casualties were taken, the sources said.

His wife, Michal, was lightly wounded, but his septuagenarian parents Eugene and Lorraine Goldstein, were seriously wounded when the Palestinian assailants opened fired on their car near the settlement of Ofra, also close to Ramallah, they said.

The attack, claimed by the armed wing of the Hamas, took place just as Mr Powell and Mr Sharon were holding a joint press conference following their talks.

“Ezzedine Al-Qassam claims responsibility as a tribute to our hero prisoners in Nazi-Zionist jails,” it said in a statement. —AFP