Israel kills militant, frees 34 prisoners

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian militant during a raid in the West Bank and temporarily blocked Gaza's main road yesterday, angering Palestinians who accused Israel of undermining US peacemaking.

The killing in the West Bank town of Qalqilya and the almost six-hour road closure, three days after the long-blocked highway was reopened, followed attacks by militants, Israel said.

"These are acts of sabotage (by Israel) and we do not accept them," Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas told reporters.

A local branch of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a prominent militant group, said it would avenge the killing in Qalqilya.

But on a more encouraging note for peacemaking, Israel freed a senior security official and 33 other Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinians regard the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as vital for the success a three-month truce announced by Palestinian militants on Sunday and for the US-backed "road map" to peace.

The two sides' acceptance of the road map has raised cautious optimism after 33 months of violence, but the latest problems highlighted its fragility.

Despite the difficulties, US President George W. Bush praised both sides' leaders in separate telephone calls.

He thanked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday for a troop pullback from the West Bank city of Bethlehem and hailed Mr Abbas yesterday for implementing steps on the road map.

Spain and Italy offered to host a peace conference called for by the road map, drafted by the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. It aims to end violence and establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005.

Israeli troops shot dead 30-year-old Mahmoud Shawar of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades during an overnight raid in Qalqilya.

"We warn Sharon's government that our response will come quick and will be like an earthquake within 24 hours," a local Brigades leader said through loudspeakers as Shawar was buried.

In Gaza, an Israeli bulldozer placed concrete barriers on the north-south highway to block Palestinian traffic for almost six hours after raising peace hopes on Monday by clearing the road for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

An Israeli military source said the highway closure followed the firing of an anti-tank missile that wounded three Israelis at the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement in Gaza overnight.

Abbas and the Fatah movement, with which the al-Aqsa Brigades are affiliated, later condemned the attack. "Fatah totally rejects all the attempts to violate the truce from these groups," it said in a statement.

Israel withdrew from most of the Gaza Strip this week after militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared a ceasefire.

Yesterday Israel freed Colonel Suleiman Abu Mutlaq, the third-ranking commander of the Gaza Palestinian Preventive security forces, and he was allowed back into Gaza. He had been suspected by Israel of involvement in attacks on Israelis.