JENIN, West Bank (Islamweb & Agenciew) - Israeli occupation troops shelled four Palestinian security targets in the West Bank overnight, hours after a Palestinian bomber killed two Israeli soldiers near a train station in Israel on Monday. (Read map caption below). The bomber, from the Resistance Islamic Jihad group, detonated explosives strapped to his body near the train station at Binyamina, north of Tel Aviv, killing the soldiers as well as himself.
As has now become routine, the bomb attack drew sharp condemnations from the United States, European Union and the Palestinian Authority, which Israel arrogantly insists on blaming for failing to rein in the Resistance.
It overshadowed Israel's opening of the week-long 16th Maccabiah Games, widely known as the ``Jewish Olympics,'' in Jerusalem amid warnings of a Palestinian attack.
Palestinian security officials said checkpoints manned by the Palestinian National Security Forces and by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's special Force 17 guard unit had come under fire near the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarm.
Gunfights between the sides ensued after the shelling, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Islamic Jihad officials said the bomber, identified as Nidal Shadouf, 20, came from a village near Palestinian-ruled Jenin.
U.S. URGES RESTRAINT
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters the U.S. calls upon ``the Palestinian leadership to unambiguously condemn the act and take steps to bring to what he called justice those responsible for actions such as these.''
Witnesses said the bomb attack, at a bus stop near Binyamina train station, left a scene of utter carnage in its wake.
Sharon aide Raanan Gissin claimed Israel remained committed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire concluded with the Palestinians a month ago which has so far failed to take root, but added:
The Palestinian Authority issued an official statement expressing ``its condemnation of the incident which led to the killing of civilians'' and calling for ``a cessation of all violent actions and incitement by all parties.''
MAP CAPTION:
Israeli tanks have shelled four Palestinian checkpoints near the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarem, hours after the bomb attack in Benyamina. Islamic Jihad faxed a statement to foreign news agencies and local media in Beirut, saying it was responsible for the bombing.