Gunmen kill two Jewish settlers

THE CRISIS in the stagnant Israeli-Palestinian peace process deepened yesterday following the murder overnight of two Jewish settlers by unknown Arab gunmen.

Harel Bin-Nun, 18, and Shlomo Liebman, 24, were ambushed with AK-47 assault rifles while on a security patrol around the settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus, the biggest West Bank Arab town. Their assailants finished them off with bullets in the head and escaped with a sub-machine-gun.

Thousand of angry right-wingers followed the funeral procession yesterday afternoon from Jerusalem through the West Bank. Settlers called on the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to break off negotiations with the Palestinian Authority; to expand the Yitzhar settlement; and to allow more settlers to carry arms.

Mr Netanyahu responded that he favoured expanding settlements, but not building new ones.

The Transport Minister, Shaul Yahalom, a leader of the pro-settler National Religious Party, insisted that negotiations be suspended until the Palestinian Authority extradited the killers to Israel - a demand he knows will not be fulfilled.

Yitzhar, in an enclave still under Israeli control, has been the scene of frequent land disputes between settlers and local Arabs. Any expansion is likely to provoke fresh confrontations.

Mr Netanyahu condemned the killings, but stopped short of blaming Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority of severing contacts with his negotiating team.

A senior official stressed, however, that the ambush reinforced Israel's demand for the Palestinian police to disarm private armies hostile to the peace process.