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Amubulances had trouble reaching the scene
At least 11 Israelis have been killed in an attack by suspected Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli officials say.
At least 30 others have been injured.Palestinian militants armed with guns and grenades attacked a group of Jewish settlers who were walking along a main road in the southern outskirts of the town, army officials and medical workers said.
According to witnesses, a heavy gun battle erupted after the incident, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the scene.
At 2000 GMT the fighting was still going on between the army and Palestinian gunmen, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Gilad Milo told the BBC.
It is not yet known how many of those killed were settlers and how many were Israeli troops who had been accompanying them.
The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the shooting. A spokesman for the group told Al-Jazeera television it was in retaliation for Israel's killing of one of its members, Iyad Sawalha, last Saturday.
One of Israel's most wanted men, 32-year-old Iyad Sawalha was blamed by the security services for two suicide bomb attacks which killed 31 Israelis and injured scores others.
Troublespot
The road where the attack took place is used every Friday by devout Jews walking from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba into Hebron to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site revered by both Jews and Muslims.
About 450 Jewish settlers, many of them armed, live alongside 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, which was divided into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled sectors under an interim peace deal in 1997. The city has frequently been the scene of violent clashes between the two sides because of its religious significance for both Muslims and Jews.
Last month, Israeli forces staged a limited pull-back from re-occupied areas of Hebron.
The attack comes only days after a gunman killed five people - two of them young children - after entering a kibbutz in northern Israel, close to the border with the West Bank.
Source
At least 11 Israelis have been killed in an attack by suspected Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli officials say.
At least 30 others have been injured.Palestinian militants armed with guns and grenades attacked a group of Jewish settlers who were walking along a main road in the southern outskirts of the town, army officials and medical workers said.
According to witnesses, a heavy gun battle erupted after the incident, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the scene.
At 2000 GMT the fighting was still going on between the army and Palestinian gunmen, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Gilad Milo told the BBC.
It is not yet known how many of those killed were settlers and how many were Israeli troops who had been accompanying them.
The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the shooting. A spokesman for the group told Al-Jazeera television it was in retaliation for Israel's killing of one of its members, Iyad Sawalha, last Saturday.
One of Israel's most wanted men, 32-year-old Iyad Sawalha was blamed by the security services for two suicide bomb attacks which killed 31 Israelis and injured scores others.
Troublespot
The road where the attack took place is used every Friday by devout Jews walking from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba into Hebron to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site revered by both Jews and Muslims.
About 450 Jewish settlers, many of them armed, live alongside 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, which was divided into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled sectors under an interim peace deal in 1997. The city has frequently been the scene of violent clashes between the two sides because of its religious significance for both Muslims and Jews.
Last month, Israeli forces staged a limited pull-back from re-occupied areas of Hebron.
The attack comes only days after a gunman killed five people - two of them young children - after entering a kibbutz in northern Israel, close to the border with the West Bank.
Source
