Israel retaliates after suicide bombers kill four

A suicide bomber set off a bomb at this checkpoint near Jerusalem, killing a policeman and himself.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Four Israelis, one of them a woman settler, were killed Monday as Palestinian suicide bombers set off blasts in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israeli air force F-16s retaliated early Tuesday by attacking a Palestinian police building in Ramallah in the West Bank, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. The agency said there were no casualties.

At about the same time, the Red Crescent said, Israeli warplanes hit a target in Rafah, in Gaza. One person was injured, the agency said.

The Israeli army said it also blocked the road connecting Gaza City to the Khan Yunis refugee camp and three other roads leading to Jewish settlements in Gaza. Israeli soldiers were preventing the movement of Palestinians on the roads.

One of the blocked roads was the same one where the suicide bombing occurred Monday.

In the incident, a bomber began firing at a civilian convoy on a road near Gush Katif to Kissufim, according to Israeli security sources, then set off a blast, killing himself, two Israeli soldiers and a woman settler.

Israeli media reports identified the woman as Ahuva Amragim, 30, from Ganei Tal. The Israel Defense Forces identified one of the soldiers as Maj. Mor Yehuda Elraz, 25.

EXTRA INFORMATION In depth: Mideast struggle for peace    MORE STORIES Netanyahu says Arafat must go

Two other soldiers were wounded, one seriously and one moderately, IDF and ambulance service sources said.

Palestinian sources identified the bomber as Mohammed Abu Marasid, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Al Aqsa has launched a series of bombings and terror attacks in recent months.

Fatah is the mainstream faction and Palestinian nationalist movement of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is dedicated to the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

Along with the mainstream organization, it also is linked to several splinter groups. The mainstream Fatah acts as the political organization of Arafat and was formed by him in 1965.

Earlier in the day, a car bomber set off an explosion that killed himself and an Israeli policeman after police stopped him at a checkpoint on a major road leading from the Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim in the West Bank to Jerusalem, Israeli police said.

Israeli media identified the police officer as Ahmed Mazarib from Beit Zarzir. A second Israeli policeman suffered from shock.

Authorities said police asked the man to get out of his car at the roadblock. He did so, but set off the explosive device in his car, they said.

Monday's incidents happened after Israeli authorities said they had stopped five Palestinian bombers in the previous 24 hours, killing two near an army base at Hadera and arresting three other suspects in the West Bank -- one near Ramallah and two others between Ramallah and Nablus.

In addition, the Israel Defense Forces said four Palestinians suspected of "committing hostile terrorist activities" were arrested in a West Bank village.

The Jerusalem daily newspaper Ha'aretz quoted unnamed Israeli defense officials Monday as saying they feared a new wave of Palestinian suicide bombings aimed at settlers and Israeli troops.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians have deteriorated since deadly Palestinian suicide bombings in Haifa and Jerusalem in early December and subsequent retaliatory attacks by Israel.

A series of Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli attacks have followed.