Amid more violence, Israel warns of extremist settlers

JERUSALEM - The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service on Sunday warned that Jewish extremists are becoming more militant, as some prominent rabbis encouraged settlers to resist evacuation from their homes.

Violence continued in the Palestinian territories as an Israeli motorist and a Palestinian gunman were killed in separate shootings in the West Bank, and a Palestinian teenager was shot to death in the Gaza Strip. Also, Israeli border police killed a Palestinian laborer just west of Jerusalem.

Late Sunday, Israeli military helicopters attacked two Palestinian metal workshops in Gaza, slightly wounding six people, hospital workers said.

The airstrikes and the warning from Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter came as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four isolated settlements in the West Bank. The evacuations will affect some 7,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza and about 500 of the 230,000 residents of West Bank settlements.

Some settler leaders have said they would resist. Many settlers are religious Jews who believe the West Bank is theirs by divine promise.

Late Sunday, about 1,000 settlers and supporters, including several prominent rabbis and politicians, held a rally at the Western Wall, a retaining wall of the ancient Jewish Temple and Judaism's most sacred shrine. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a former chief rabbi of Israel, led a mass prayer session.

Yitzhak Levy, a politician from the prosettler National Religious Party, said he does not support violence, but did not rule out the possibility of fighting.

Dichter told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that the threat of extremist violence among Jewish settlers is growing, the Associated Press reported, quoting an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Jewish militants recently attacked an army officer in Jerusalem because he helped dismantle a synagogue at an unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost, the official quoted Dichter as saying.

In recent weeks, settler leaders and prominent rabbis have spoken out harshly against the government's plan to remove some settlements.

Last month, settler leader Uri Elitzur, a former top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said violent resistance to settlement evacuations is legitimate. An eminent rabbi in Jerusalem also has said that anyone who removes Jewish settlements would be subject to the death penalty under biblical Jewish law.

Palestinian militants carried out a series of attacks Sunday in the northern West Bank, including a morning ambush that killed a Jewish resident of the Mevo Dotan settlement as he was driving near the town of Jenin, the army said.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in response to an Israeli raid last weekend that killed its leader.

The Israeli army also killed a gunman who fired at soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement near the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinians said the man was a local leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets against Israeli targets, despite a broad operation in northern Gaza to prevent the attacks. No injuries were reported.

Israeli attack helicopters fired six missiles in separate attacks against two Palestinian metal workshops in Gaza. Three people were wounded by the strike at the Jebaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City, medics said. Three were slightly injured after another workshop was targeted in Gaza City.

The Israeli army said Sunday's raids were against targets used by Hamas "and other terror organizations" to manufacture rockets, which are often used to fire at Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israeli villages just outside Gaza.

In the latest fighting, a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli machine gun fire on Sunday and a 17-year-old boy was wounded in a separate incident, Palestinian medics said. The army was checking the reports.

In all, seven Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign.

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