Israeli, 53, killed in shooting attack near Ofra

An Israeli man, 53, was killed in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Ofra early Sunday morning.

Zion David, a resident of Givat Ze'ev and father of six, was apparently driving to work in the area when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle about 500 meters north of Ofra. He was hit in the head by the gunfire and lost control of the vehicle, which then flipped over.

"We arrived at the scene and found a vehicle overturned in a ditch," a Magen David Adom paramedic told Israel Radio. "When we went into the ditch we found a man wounded by gunfire, which caused the vehicle to overturn, and killed him at the scene."

Both Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the local council, told Israel Radio that such attacks were no surprise in light of the current visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Eyewitnesses said that shots were fired on the vehicle from both sides of the road. The gunmen also fired at another Israeli vehicle, but no one was injured in this attack.

Israel Defense Forces troops were operating in the nearby village of Silwad, where the gunmen were believed to have fled.

Overnight Sunday, Israel Defense Forces troops killed a Palestinian man attempting to enter Israel illegally from the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

The man approached the security fence near the Kisufim crossing in an area forbidden to Palestinians, which caught the attention of IDF troops and spurred a search for him, Army Radio reported Saturday night.

There were no Israeli injuries in the incident.

IDF nabs senior Islamic Jihad militant in JeninThe IDF on Sunday captured a top Islamic Jihad man, Annas Jaradat, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Jaradat was at the top of the tops the army's wanted list in the northern West Bank city.

The army says Jaradat was behind the car bombs at the Megiddo Junction in June 2002, in which 17 people were killed, and at the Karkur Junction in October 2002, in which 14 people were killed. He was seized in a home in Jenin. Military officials said he was planning another series of attacks.

Earlier Sunday, three Qassam rockets were fired into the Negev town of Sderot. No injuries were reported.

The latest Qassam attack follows an incident Saturday night in which two Israeli women were lightly wounded when four Qassam rockets landed, and one exploded, in Neve Dekalim, a Gaza Strip settlement in the Gush Katif bloc. The women were taken to Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center.

	Zion David, a father of six from Givat Ze`ev, was killed early Sunday in an ambush by Palestinian gunmen.