Palestinian gunman kills Israeli woman

JERUSALEM, Aug 21 (AP): A suspected Palestinian attacker killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the south of the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli authorities said, as violence continued to flare in the restive territory shortly after another shooting killed two Israelis.
The latest attack is part of a sharp escalation in the region in recent months involving Palestinian militants, Israeli security forces and radical Jewish settlers. It took place as Israeli forces were already on high alert and searching for the gunman who had killed the two Israelis in the northern West Bank on Saturday.
The combustible mix of armed Palestinians carrying out shooting attacks against Israelis as well as near-nightly - and often deadly - raids by the Israeli army to arrest militants has fueled the worst fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
Reprisals by fanatic Jewish settlers against Palestinians have also heightened tensions in the territory. Late on Sunday, Israeli settlers threw stones and firebombs at a Palestinian home south of Nablus near the site of Saturday's deadly attack, local officials reported, causing damage but no injuries.
Israeli security forces said the suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli car on Route 60, the main north-south road in the West Bank, near the major city of Hebron. The army said the apparent drive-by shooting killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man as the two were driving.
The Israeli rescue service reported the two victims were in their 40s and that a 6-year-old girl who was also in the car was unharmed. The man, it said, was found semi-conscious and taken to the hospital.