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Click Here The teenage attacker, wearing a military uniform and the skullcap of a re ligious Jew, was killed by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows after the shootings. Security agencies had warned that Jewish militants against the evacuation of Gaza settlements, due to start in two weeks, could attack Palestinia ns to stoke conflict and wreck a pullout they see as rejecting a biblica l birthright. In addition to the four dead, at least 22 people, all but seven of them A rabs, were hurt in the shooting and the ensuing fracas. Hamas threatened reprisals for the attack, the deadliest by a Jewish radical since 29 Pa lestinians were killed in 1994. Sharon called it "a sinful act by a bloodthirsty terrorist."
Terror between civilians is the most dangerous thing for the future of Israel and its democratic stability," his office said in a statement. The army said 19-year-old Eden Nathan Zaada had "deserted and was of a pr oblematic background."
West Bank settlement of Tapuach after he did not report back to his military duty t wo months ago. He had been a staunch opponent of Israel's planned Gaza pullout and left a note at his base that condemned the plan, the Web site said. The government has accused some ultranationalists of trying to incite vio lence ahead of the plan to remove 9,000 settlers from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, the first time Israel will uproot settlements from lan d Palestinians want for a state. Mainstream settler leaders, who have vowed peaceful resistance, condemned the attack. POLICE RUSH TO QUELL TROUBLE Thousands of Israeli police were called to the north after alerts of pote ntial riots, a spokesman said. Forces shot dead 13 Israeli Arabs in Octo ber 2000 when they tried to quell a rally in support of a Palestinian up rising that had grown violent. Some of those who headed toward Shfaram had been stationed outside Gaza t o try to prevent marchers from infiltrating settlements to disrupt the p ullout. Israeli Arab deputy Azmi Bishara said: "We are afraid that this is an org anized act of discrimination and racism." In the worst attack by a settler on Arabs, in 1994, Baruch Goldstein kill ed 29 Muslim worshippers in the West Bank city of Hebron. He hoped to de rail interim peace accords with the Palestinians. Sharon says the Gaza withdrawal plan aims at "disengaging" from conflict with the Palestinians. Opponents say it gives up a biblical claim to the land captured in the 1967 war and rewards militants behind attacks in t he uprising since 2000. Palestinians welcome the pullout, touted by the United States as a possib le step to peacemaking, but fear it is a ruse for Israel to strengthen i ts hold on West Bank settlements -- where plans for new building were re vealed on Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting. Palestinian n egotiator Saeb Erekat called the attack a dangerous development and hope d it would not affect the pullout. Hamas Islamic militants, currently following a six-month old truce in a c ampaign of shootings and bombings, said it would not "stand handcuffed b efore the new Israeli crime" though it did not pledge specific retaliati on. Sharon has said Israel must part with Gaza, where 8,500 settlers live sea led off from 14 million Palestinians, for the Jewish state's own securi ty and because it has no chance of keeping it in any future peace deal. But his top aide Dov Weisglass said on Thursday said Israel could eventua lly expect that at least 180,000 of the current 240,000 settlers would b e able to stay in the West Bank with US approval. The World Court has determined that settlements on occupied land are ille gal.
An Israeli youth stands next to a damaged car after a shooting attack in the town of Shfaram August 5, 2005. A soldier from a Jewish settleme nt shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a 'bloodthirsty te rrorist' ahead of a Gaza pullout. The teenage attacker, wearing a milita ry uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was killed by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows afte r the shootings.
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