Israel rockets car with Palestinian commanders, killing one

BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank - An Israeli combat helicopter rocketed a car full of Palestinian commanders on Thursday, killing one and wounding another critically. Another six people were injured.

The attack outside Bethlehem was likely to intensify the violence and draw a tough Palestinian response, just as President Clinton was set to convene new meetings aimed at resuscitating Mideast peace talks.

Medics scraped scorched flesh off the pavement, and passers-by rushed to help the wounded in Beit Sahour, a well-to-do Christian suburb of Bethlehem.

Hospital officials identified the dead man as Hussein Abayat, prominent among the plainclothes Palestinian gunmen who have led the most recent uprising against Israel's presence in parts of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Khaled Salahat, a senior official in Palestinian intelligence, was critically wounded.

Hussein a-Sheikh, a leader of the Palestinian gunmen, told Israel radio that the Israelis had raised the stakes.

''Our reaction will be sharp and tough,'' he said. ''They opened fire on that car without any reason.''

A woman passer-by was among another two people reported to be in critical condition, and other passers-by were also among the wounded.

It has not been unusual for the Israeli army to launch helicopter gunship attacks on Palestinian targets in retaliation for shooting attacks. But until now the targets have mainly been infrastructure sites - military headquarters and police stations - and have been preceded by warnings to evacuate.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has come under increasing pressure from his military to target the gunmen for retaliation.

Beit Sahour has been used as a base for Palestinian gunmen aiming their attacks at an Israeli army camp in an Israeli-controlled area of the West Bank. Another Christian town, Beit Jalla, has been used to launch attacks on Gilo, a middle-class Jewish neighborhood in a disputed area of Jerusalem.

Those battles have been marked until now by very low casualties - mostly residents treated for shock - setting them aside from a conflict otherwise characterized by much bloodshed.

Almost 180 people have been killed in the six weeks of clashes, the vast majority of them Palestinians from the working classes.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Washington early Thursday after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. Arafat said he would press for an international force to protect his people from Israeli troops.

Israel rejects such a demand. Barak, who meets Clinton on Sunday, also said he would not seek resumption of the negotiations, stalled since a failed summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in July.

Jewish settlers positioned at the Bethlehem-Jerusalem crossing tried to stop an ambulance evacuating wounded from the Beit Sahour clash to a Jerusalem hospital. They surrounded the vehicle and banged on it, until it managed to pull away.

The military already had banned an annual prayer gathering set for Thursday at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem. The site, where Jews believe the biblical Rachel was buried, has been the scene of riots and exchanges of gunfire and has been closed to Jewish worshippers for safety reasons.

A number of settlers succeeded in infiltrating Rachel's Tomb before dawn, but were evacuated by the army. Troops then kept about 100 from crossing the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

''Barak is giving freedom of religion to everybody but not the Jews, and we are not going to accept this,'' said Nadia Matar, a woman leading the protest near the site renowned for its healing powers for women. ''And we are going to weep on Rachel's Tomb. Rachel is weeping for her children.''