JERUSALEM - Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli woman in the West Bank yesterday, possibly burying any hopes of truce talks between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
In what initially appeared to be a drive-by shooting, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli woman in the West Bank's Jordan Valley, Israeli police said, breaking one of the quietest days in nearly a year of violence.
The lull in fighting and stepped-up United States pressure led Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to soften his stance on preconditions for ceasefire talks after he cancelled a Peres-Arafat meeting planned for yesterday.
Avshalom Margolim, who arrived at the scene of the West Bank shooting minutes after it happened, said he had noticed suspicious Palestinians in the area earlier in the morning.
"I got there two minutes after the shooting and I saw a commercial vehicle that had been completely shot up," he told Israel Radio. "There was a wounded woman lying on the street. People were trying to resuscitate her."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Sharon to make it clear he was eager for a Peres-Arafat meeting to take place. The cancellation of talks also threatened a crisis in Sharon's broad left-right coalition.
After Washington stepped up its pressure for the meeting to help it build an anti-terror alliance, Sharon said it seemed the ceasefire was holding, paving the way for the high-level talks.
Powell said in Washington that Sharon had "confirmed to me that he is interested in having talks". He said he expected a Peres-Arafat meeting in the "near future". Powell also spoke with Arafat on the issue, Palestinian officials said.
Peres, who was reportedly furious at yet another cancellation of truce talks by Sharon, telephoned Arafat to tell him that if violence waned for another 24 hours they could meet today.
Israeli media said Washington was fast losing patience with Sharon over the issue of truce talks.
- REUTERS
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Israeli woman shot in blow to talks
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