Jerusalem, June 23: Four Palestinian militants died apparently when a bomb they were planting went off in northern Gaza, after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed defiance of a plank of the US-backed "roadmap" peace plan that calls for a freeze in construction in Jewish settlements. At first, Palestinian security officials said Israeli tanks fired shells at a group of militants last night from the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with the mainstream Fatah, killing three men and wounding four others, in the northeast Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Another died later in a hospital, doctors said.
However, later loudspeaker trucks drove through the area saying that the four died while "fulfilling their national duty," a phrase used in the past to announce accidental deaths. Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israeli forces did not fire shells. Instead, they said, the militants were on their way to plant a bomb and it went off prematurely, killing them.
Israeli forces have maintained a presence near Beit Hanoun for several weeks, trying to prevent Palestinians from firing rockets at a nearby Israeli town. Earlier, Sharon told his cabinet the settlement construction should proceed quietly, a senior cabinet official quoted the Prime Minister as saying. A television report said Sharon told the ministers that settlement building "isn't part of the road map, it's my personal commitment." Bureau Report