GAZA CITY, June 23: Efforts to implement the roadmap for Israeli-Palestinian peace stumbled on Monday, after more deaths and warnings from the architects of the plan that the cycle of violence must be ended.

Four Palestinian militants were killed in the Gaza Strip in what appeared to be the premature blast of a bomb they were preparing. Palestinian sources said the four members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed by Israeli tank shells near the town of Beit Hanun.—AFP