Israeli settler kills 4 on board bus in Arab town

A crowd of Israeli Arabs surrounds a bus following a shooting attack in the town of Shfaram. Picture / Reuters

SHFARAM - A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout.

The teenage attacker, wearing uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was beaten to death by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows.

Security agencies had warned that Jewish militants who oppose the withdrawal from Gaza settlements, due to start in two weeks, could attack Palestinians to fire up conflict in a bid to wreck Sharon's plan.

Sharon called it "a sinful act by a bloodthirsty terrorist."

"This terror incident is a deliberate attempt to harm the relations between the citizens of Israel. 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 Eden Nathan Zaada had "deserted and was of a problematic background".

Police said he had been living at a settlement in the West Bank. Israeli media said he was 19.

At least 22 people, all but seven of them Arabs, were hurt in the shooting and the ensuing fracas.

The government has accused some ultranationalists of trying to incite violence ahead of the plan to remove 9000 settlers from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, the first time Israel will uproot settlements from land Palestinians want for a state.

Mainstream settler leaders, who have vowed peaceful resistance, condemned the attack.

"Such incidents cannot be part of the democratic struggle in Israel," said Yesha settler council Benzi Lieberman from a demonstration outside the Gaza Strip where thousands have gathered to protest against the pullout.

Forces were called to the north to try to prevent further violence. Some of those who headed toward Shfaram had been stationed outside Gaza to try to prevent marchers from infiltrating settlements to disrupt the pullout.

Israeli Arab parliament member Mohammed Barakeh said: "We are witnessing attempts by extreme right-wing people, terrorists, who want to set the region ablaze and feel they have freedom of action."

Arabs make up about one fifth of Israel's population.

In the worst attack by a settler on Arabs, in 1994, Baruch Goldstein shot dead 29 Muslim worshippers in the West Bank city of Hebron. He aimed to derail 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 an uprising since 2000.

Polls show most Israelis back Sharon's plan.

Palestinians welcome the pullout, touted by the United States as a possible step to peacemaking, but fear it is a ruse for Israel to strengthen its hold on the much bigger West Bank settlements.

In a new move condemned by the Palestinian Authority, Israel revealed plans to build 72 housing units in the Jewish settlement of Betar Ilit, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Sharon has said Israel must part with Gaza, where 8500 settlers live sealed off from 1.4 million Palestinians, for the Jewish state's own security and because it has no chance of keeping it in any future peace deal.

In Gaza City, 10,000 Palestinians held a demonstration, dancing in the streets and chanting "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem". The festivities were sponsored by the Palestinian Authority.

- REUTERS