Israeli families gather Monday for ritual Passover meal

JERUSALEM -- Families across Israel gathered after sundown Monday for ritual meals signaling the start of Passover, with holiday observances overshadowed by a fatal shooting in the West Bank.

The weeklong holiday commemorates the liberation of the ancient Israelites from centuries of slavery in Egypt, as described in the Old Testament. In Judaism, it is dubbed the festival of freedom.

This year, Passover comes amid uncertainty over the future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with the sides facing an end-of-April deadline to reach a preliminary deal or agree to an extension of negotiations.

Ahead of the holiday, Israel sealed off the West Bank, barring Palestinians from entering Israel, an annual Passover precaution against possible attacks.

Despite extra security measures, an assailant standing by the side of a road in the West Bank opened fire on passing Israeli cars Monday evening, killing a man and wounding a woman and a boy, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Most of Israel shut down after sundown, as families and friends gathered for Seder, the ritual multicourse meal where the story of the exodus from Egypt is discussed in detail so that the tradition is preserved throughout the generations.

Leavened goods like bread and items made from yeast such as beer are banned during the holiday. In the weeks leading up to Passover, Jews clean their homes, scrubbing every nook and cranny to get rid of even the tiniest forbidden crumb that might lurk there.

Instead, Jews eat matzo -- unleavened bread -- to illustrate how the Israelites had no time to let their bread rise as they fled from bondage in the land of the Pharaohs. It is also traditionally viewed as the bread of the poor, and is symbolically consumed to remind Jews of their ancestors' hardships.

Speaking at a matzo factory in the Hasidic community of Kfar Chabad last week, Rabbi Menachem Glukovsky explained the deep meaning of the matzo for the Jewish people.

"It's called the food of faith, just like our forefathers, when they left Egypt into the desert with a lot of faith, they trusted God, they went with these matzos and we relive it every year," Glukovsky said.

A central theme of Passover is helping those otherwise unable to celebrate the holiday. An Arab Israeli politician says he helps isolated Jewish communities in Muslim countries, including war-torn Syria, by supplying them with holiday essentials.

Ayoub Kara, a Druse Arab from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said kosher Passover wine and matzo is stripped of Israeli labels and delivered to Jewish communities in those countries through international aid organizations and volunteers.

Kara said the roughly 120 Jews living in Damascus, Syria, are more vulnerable this year than before because of the civil war. He said he began coordinating the food transfers for Passover and other holidays five years ago as a deputy minister in the Israeli government. However, he said he works alone, not on behalf of the Israeli government.

Kara declined to name the other countries where food is delivered. Israel has no diplomatic relations with most Arab and Muslim countries over its stance with the Palestinians. Any Israeli contact with Jewish communities there can cause problems.

Aid groups in Israel also were busy giving food packages to the needy, with organizers reporting more people seeking their help this year because of the economic downturn and the increasing cost of living.

The holiday provided a brief break from U.S.-led efforts to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met late Sunday, while U.S. mediator Martin Indyk was expected to return from consultations in Washington by today.

The talks have been close to collapse for the past few weeks. Little progress has been made on issues of substance. Instead, the crisis was triggered by sharp disagreement over the terms of extending the negotiations, which would include a release of Palestinian prisoners.

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Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.