Israeli man killed, 2 hurt in West Bank shooting

JERUSALEM -- An assailant opened fire on Israeli motorists in the West Bank on Monday, killing a man and wounding a woman and a boy in two separate cars, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack could further complicate U.S. attempts to salvage troubled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The shooting took place just before the start of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover, marked by families gathering after sundown for a ritual meal, or Seder.

Police said the shooting took place near a crossing between Israel and the southern West Bank. Israeli TV stations said a gunman stood by the side of the road and opened fire as cars with Israeli license plates approached.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a man was killed and a woman wounded in one vehicle, and that a boy was lightly hurt by bullet fragments in a second car.

The Israeli military said troops imposed a curfew on the nearby Palestinian village of Idna.

Such shootings were common in the West Bank a decade ago, during an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel's military occupation, but the level of violence dropped significantly in recent years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he opposes violence as a means of pressuring Israel.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the terms of such a state have not produced results, and the latest U.S. mediation attempt, launched last year by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, also seems on the verge of collapse.

Kerry has said he wants to see a deal, or at least the outlines of one, by the end of April. Instead, the sides have been locked in a dispute over the terms of extending talks, without having made any apparent progress on substance, such as borders and security arrangements.