HIGHLIGHTSIslamic Jihad Claims Responsibility|| One of the Israelis Killed a Colonel who Commanded a Brigade in the Southern West Bank|| Attack Raises Spectre of Heavy Retaliation by Occupation Army or Revenge by Internationally Illegal Settlers in the Predominantly Palestinian City|| Three Palestinians Killed in the Battle Near the Kiryat Arbaa Settlement|| Israeli Helicopters Fire Missiles at Metal Factory in Gaza, No Injuries Reported|| STORYPalestinian resistance men ambushed Jewish settlers walking home from Sabbath prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, killing at least 12 people in the deadliest attack on Israelis in Hebron in two years of violence.

The settlers and occupation soldiers who rushed to their aid Friday were struck down by heavy gunfire along a route Israelis call "worshippers' way" linking the divided West Bank city to the adjacent settlement of Kiryat Arba.
The Islamic Jihad resisstance group said it carried out the assault as payback for Israel's killing of one of its military leaders a week ago. Islamic Jihad resistance men in Gaza handed out sweets to youngsters and fired in the air to celebrate the Hebron attack.
Medical officials put the number of Israeli dead at 12 and said about 15 others were wounded in the ambush that raised the specter of heavy retaliation by Israel's right-wing government or revenge attacks by settlers.
It was the highest Israeli death toll in Hebron since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in September 2000. One of the Israeli dead was a colonel who commanded a brigade in the southern West Bank, the army said.
Palestinian officials said two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on the house where the attackers were believed to be holed up. Israeli security sources identified them as resistance men and said the body of a third resistance man had been found.
The surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence, coinciding with a stormy campaign for an Israeli general election on January 28, was expected to delay international peacemaking and deepen regional uncertainty ahead of a possible U.S. war on Iraq.
" SHOOTIN EVERYWHERE," SAYS ISRAELI EYEWITNESS
"There was shooting everywhere," Arik, an Israeli caught up in the ambush, told Army Radio. "I didn't know where to go. I fell flat on the ground... It was a slaughter."
Some 450 settlers, many armed and among the most extreme in the West Bank, live in enclaves alongside 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, a flashpoint city divided into Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled sectors in an interim peace deal in 1997.
Ultra-nationalists in the caretaker cabinet that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is leading in the run-up to the election count settlers as their core constituency and are likely to push for an iron-fist response to Friday's attack.
But political commentators said Israel was likely to delay retaliation until after the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.
In the Gaza Strip early Saturday, two Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a metal foundry, witnesses said. There were no reports of casualties. Israel has launched similar raids in the past against workshops it suspects are arms factories.
SHRINE SCENE OF PAST KILLINGS
The Hebron shrine where the settlers had worshipped is the traditional burial place of biblical patriarchs holy to Jews and Muslims. In 1994, settler Baruch Goldstein shot dead dozens of Arab worshippers in a mosque on the site.
Captain Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman, said worshippers accompanied by a border police jeep were walking to Kiryat Arba from the Tomb of the Patriarchs when they came under fire from a Palestinian house about 500 yards from the settlement.
"There were a lot of casualties among the civilians," he said. "There were casualties among the border police. An Israeli occupation army rescue force, including ambulances also came. They were also shot at, and there were more casualties."
Israel Radio said occupation soldiers who came to the settlers' aid were ambushed in a narrow alleyway by resistance men firing automatic weapons and hurling hand grenades.
Speaking by telephone to al-Jazeera satellite television, the head of Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Shallah, described the attack on the settlers as a "remarkable operation."
Settlers living on occupied land Palestinians want for a state of their own have been frequent targets for attack during an uprising in which at least 1,660 Palestinians and 639 Israelis have been killed.
The international community regards settlements as illegal.
PHOTO CAPTION

An injured Israel settler is taken into an ambulance at the Gush Ezion junction near the West Bank city of Hebron on November 15, 2002. Palestinian resistance men fired at Jewish settlers on their way to Sabbath eve prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 others, Israeli occupation army sources said. Photo by Yossi Zamir/Flash 90/Reuters
- Nov 15 8:28 P