Palestinian 17-year-old kills one with suicide bomb

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian bomber blew himself up and killed one Israeli on Sunday, marking the first suicide attack in nearly a month and dealing another blow to a tattered truce.

Also, Israeli troops shot dead one Palestinian and injured three more in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinians said. Israeli troops entered two Palestinian neighborhoods in the city on Friday where they have been for three days.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians want to be seen as abandoning the cease-fire, but the violence has not abated since the truce was declared Sept. 26. More than 30 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Cabinet issued a sharply worded statement Friday telling Palestinian militants that attacks on Israel were undermining the truce and worked against Palestinian interests.

Also, Palestinian security forces said they have detained at least six suspected militants in recent days. Those taken into custody include two activists from the Islamic Jihad movement, detained Sunday in the wake of the suicide bombing.

However, Israel has named more than 100 suspects it wants arrested, and the actions by the security forces have not halted the attacks.

In northern Israel, a Palestinian bomber approached the Israeli agricultural settlement of Kibbutz Shluhot on foot. When an Israeli in a car drove up to confront the Palestinian, he detonated his bomb, killing them both, said Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

Palestinian security sources said the bomber was a 17-year-old high-school student, Ahmed Daraghmeh, and a member of Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad did not comment on the attack. However, it and the Hamas movement have carried out more than 20 suicide bombings during the past year of Mideast fighting.

With Arafat urging Palestinians to cease fire, there had been some speculation that militant groups might halt suicide bombings inside Israel, at least temporarily. But Sunday's attack -- the first suicide bombing since Sept. 9 -- showed that such attacks have not been abandoned.