OCCUPIED JERUSALEM —Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli settler and exchanged fire with troops in the West Bank yesterday, while Israel’s prime minister suggested that Washington link US aid to Palestinians to a crackdown on armed groups.
Israeli soldiers kept up their hunt for militants, smashing through the walls of houses in Nablus and uprooting orchards in the Gaza Strip apparently used to launch rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Hours earlier, an Israeli helicopter in southern Gaza killed a Hamas fugitive driving a donkey cart, the fourth missile strike against members of the militant group in eight days.
Israel marked all Hamas members for death after 21 people were killed in an Aug. 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem. Israel says the Palestinian Authority is sabotaging the US-backed road map peace plan by failing to curb the militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told visiting US congressmen that the United States could help by exerting economic pressure on the Palestinians, a senior official in Sharon’s office said yesterday.
At a meeting Thursday with Republicans Thomas Reynolds of New York and Eric Cantor of Virginia, Sharon suggested tying financial aid to progress on shutting down the armed groups, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
