Israel vows to retaliate after four days of attacks

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus stop in north Jerusalem late Monday, capping a day of violence in which four people were killed and two pregnant women -- one Israeli and one Palestinian -- were shot at roadblocks and then gave birth to healthy babies.

The gunfire threatened to rekindle daily Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed after a brief period of relative calm. A senior Israeli official said that understandings reached last week toward calming the violence were no longer in effect because of Palestinian attacks, and that Israel would respond.

The bus stop attack took place after nightfall in Neve Yaakov, a Jewish neighborhood in a disputed part of Jerusalem claimed by both sides. At least one Palestinian started shooting at Israelis, wounding eight people, including three policemen, police and witnesses said.

Eyewitness Yulia Kizgila, 23, saw the gunman. "He ducked behind a car and fired," and police fired back, she said. The car was riddled with bullets and the street was smeared with blood.

Police charged the attacker and shot him, said Jerusalem police commander Mickey Levy. At first police said there were two gunmen and one was killed. Later they said one was critically wounded, and two hours after the incident they said there was only one attacker.

In Nablus, the Al Aqsa Brigades said the attacker belonged to the group, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The organization also claimed responsibility for another attack on Israelis on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Israel pulled back the tanks surrounding Arafat's compound in the West Bank. Angry Palestinian officials said the move was meaningless because of the continued restrictions on the movements of the Palestinian leader.