Shepherd killed in West Bank violence
An Israeli shepherd was killed by suspected Palestinian militants as he was tending his flock in the southern West Bank, an Israeli army spokesman said today.
The shepherd, who lived in the Jewish settlement of Soussia, was shot from short range on Monday night.
Tracks of two people led to the nearby Palestinian village of Yata, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, a settlers’ leader claimed on Israel radio.
The shepherd was the third victim of the violence between Israelis and the Palestinians on Monday.
A Palestinian taxi driver was shot dead by Israeli soldiers who mistakenly thought he was planting a bomb near a military checkpoint in the West Bank, and an Israeli was shot dead as he was shopping at an open-air market in an Israeli Arab town on the border with the West Bank.
In other incidents an Israeli motorist was shot and seriously wounded in the West Bank near the Palestinian city of Nablus, and two bombs went off in an Israeli city east of Tel Aviv, but nobody was hurt.
Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs had a tense late-night meeting as the wave of violence threatened to cause the collapse of an American-brokered truce meant to end more than nine months of fighting.
The security chiefs met in Tel Aviv at the request of the United States, but no progress was reported.
A Palestinian official said the meeting was stormy and the US diplomats failed to defuse the tension. Another meeting was set for Friday, he added.
