Palestinian kills 5 in West Bank settlement

Attacks leave 31 Israelis dead in three days

Paramedics evacuate an Israeli soldier Thursday after a Palestinian gunman wounded him in the Itamar settlement.

NABLUS, West Bank (CNN) -- A Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis, including a mother and her three children, at a Jewish settlement near Nablus late Thursday, Israeli military sources said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the raid "horrendous" and said it would result in an Israeli response. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants rejected Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call to end attacks on Israeli civilians, 31 of whom have been killed since Tuesday.

Israeli military sources said a gunman also died in Thursday night's attack on the Itamar settlement. Four other settlers were wounded, the sources said.

At least one Palestinian gunman infiltrated the settlement and entered a house where a family with a large number of children lived, Israeli military sources said. A standoff and gun battle ensued, leaving five settlers dead and four wounded, according to Israeli ambulance services.

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The dead included a mother and her three children, as well as an unrelated settler, the ambulance services said.

A neighbor, Rinat Cabara, told Reuters that seven children lived in the home.

"We're in the valley, and there aren't any fences here or anything," Cabara said. "We were in a panic ... trying to hope it won't be worse and praying that there wasn't anyone killed."

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility on local television for Thursday night's attack. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Two other Palestinian groups -- the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- also claimed responsibility for the attack.

Another attack on a Jewish settlement was thwarted earlier in the day when a Palestinian armed with several rifles and a grenade was killed trying to infiltrate a school in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron.

The Itamar area was the scene of another Palestinian shooting attack in May that killed three students. Troops from the Israel Defense Forces continued to search for other gunmen who may have been involved in Thursday night's attack.

Militants reject Arafat's call to end attacks

Earlier Thursday, representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced they would continue to use suicide attacks as a weapon against Israelis despite Arafat's call for an end to the tactic.

The announcement followed a pair of Palestinian suicide bombings this week in Jerusalem that killed 26 people -- 19 aboard a bus Tuesday (Full story, Victims) and seven at a bus stop in the same city Wednesday. (Full story)

After Wednesday's terror attack, Israeli Apache helicopters hit targets in Gaza City and around the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp, the biggest Palestinian camp in the territories. Shortly after those airstrikes began, Arafat issued a statement in Arabic, calling on Palestinians to "completely stop" attacks against Israelis. He said the attacks were being used by Israel as a pretext for seizing Palestinian land. (Full story)

But when questioned by reporters Thursday, Arafat did not say what action the Palestinian Authority would take to stop the suicide bombers.

After Tuesday's bus bombing, the Israeli government announced it would recapture territory placed under Palestinian Authority control under the 1993 Oslo accords "as long as terror continues."

In the latest of a string of Israeli military actions following the announcement, Israeli troops entered the West Bank city of Tulkarem and declared the city closed Thursday. News outlets also reported that the Israeli military was issuing emergency call-up notices for reservists.

The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that in addition to Tulkarem, its troops were hunting for suspected Palestinian terrorists operating in the villages of Beit Eiva, Beit Wazan and Zara, near Nablus. Israeli troops have placed all the areas under curfew.

IDF units also were conducting similar searches for terror suspects in Bethlehem and the Deheishe refugee camp, while soldiers operated for a second day in Qalqilya and Jenin.

The week's events have prompted President Bush to put off a planned address on the Middle East, expected to include some vision of Palestinian statehood.

Bush's speech had been planned for late this week. A senior White House official said Bush spoke Thursday morning with Sharon, telling the Israeli leader that there ultimately must be a political dialogue to resolve disputes between Israel and the Palestinians. (Full story)

Secretary of State Colin Powell worked the phones Thursday, calling the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and Russia to explain Bush's delay in presenting his Mideast address. Powell also urged the ministers to take action to stop the violence in the region. (Full story)