Motorist dies in West Bank shooting

An Israeli was killed early today when his van overturned after shots were fired at the vehicle on a road near the West Bank settlement of Beit El, the army said.

The Army sealed off the area to search for the gunman.

In another roadside ambush today, an Israeli was lightly injured near Nablus in the West Bank, the Army said.

A Palestinian suspected of firing on the car was caught soon after.

Palestinian police are investigating powerful explosions that killed six Palestinians yesterday in the West Bank town of Ramallah and Gaza City.

In the Ramallah blast, a two-story apartment building was leveled near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters.

At least four people were killed, including Hassan el-Qady, whom Israel suspected of shooting dead a 16-year-old Israeli boy who was lured to the Ramallah area by a Palestinian woman in an exchange of e-mail messages.

Palestinians charged that Israel was responsible for the blast. Hussein al-Shekh, a leader of Arafat’s Fatah group, said, ‘‘This is one of the continuous Israeli policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders.’’

A brother and sister, aged eight and six, were killed in the explosion, along with another man, hospital officials said. Several other people were trapped in the rubble.

Ambulances raced to the scene, and rescue workers used bulldozers to try to free the trapped people.

Witnesses said the blast came from inside the building. Blaming Israel, the governor of Ramallah, Mustafa Eissa, said the bomb was planted under the stairs.

In Gaza, a bomb inside a van exploded, killing two Palestinians and badly damaging a building.

Palestinians said the two dead men were activists of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas. Israel radio reported that they were preparing a bomb that went off accidentally, but some in Gaza blamed Israel.

The Israeli military spokesman’s office said the military had nothing to do with the two explosions and had no information about them.