A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber killed a Jewish settler in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday hours before a scheduled Israeli-Palestinian summit, Israeli military sources said. The bombing was a reminder of the difficulties Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas face when they hold the highest-level Middle East talks in two years divided over a U.S.-backed “road map” to peace. Military sources said the bomber, disguised as a religious Jew, fled soldiers after being challenged and blew himself up next to two settlers. One settler was killed and another seriously wounded. Palestinian witnesses reported ambulances rushing to the center of Hebron, where 400 militant Jewish settlers live in a fortified enclave among 120,000 Palestinians. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian militant groups, which have regularly targeted settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during a 31-month-old uprising for independence. Sharon was due to host Abbas, a leading moderate who recently became the Palestinians’ first premier, in Jerusalem on Saturday evening to discuss the road map. Full Story
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