Atlanta Journal ConstitutionJERUSALEM (AP)--Palestinian gunmen ambushed a van of Israeli worshippers returning from a disputed holy site Friday morning, wounding seven passengers, as the Palestinian prime minister made an impassioned plea for new negotiations with Israel.
Seven of the passengers were shot and wounded. The victims initially sought refuge in an abandoned house nearby, witnesses said. ``I heard about 15 rounds,'' said a resident of the area, Morad Kassab, 27. ``I looked from the window, and I saw strangers crying and screaming and talking on the phone.'' The army, which said it did not know the Jews were in the area before the attack, eventually evacuated them.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an armed group with loose ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. Al Aqsa gunmen drove the van into the nearby Balata refugee camp and burned it, witnesses said.