Israeli Soldier Kills 4 On Bus

Extremist opposition to Israel's impending pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank spilled over into deadly violence when a soldier boarded a bus in an Arab town and opened fire, killing the driver and three passengers, all Israeli Arabs, and wounding several others.

The military identified the soldier as Eden Natan-Zada, 19. A mob of enraged residents stoned him to death Thursday after the shooting.

CBS News reports that the gunman had deserted his army unit in protest over the upcoming pullout from Gaza and was spending time in a radical West Bank settlement.

His father said Natan-Zada had been ordered to help prepare for the pullout.

For months, Israeli security has been warning that as the mid-August pullout nears, desperate extremists might try to sabotage it by attacking Arabs and diverting forces.

"This is no longer a theory," commented broadcaster David Zilberstein on Army Radio late Thursday.

Meanwhile, two weeks before it is slated to begin its pullout, Israel says it will expand a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

The plan to build 72 housing units in the Beitar Illit settlement is liable to put Israel on a collision course with the U.S. government, which opposes settlement expansion. The announcement immediately angered Palestinians, who claim the West Bank as part of a future state.

Police commissioner Moshe Karadi said forces had been diverted to deal with an anti-pullout demonstration in Israel's south, leaving the north short-handed. "We have sent forces from the center and those from the south who were supposed to be going home have now been diverted to the north," he said.

Karadi warned the attack could trigger additional violence. In Jerusalem, ahead of Muslim Sabbath prayers on Friday, police have raised their level of alert and pledge to foil attempts to ignite violence.

Israeli Arabs plan to hold a strike, demonstrations and a memorial gathering in Shrafam on Friday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued a strongly worded statement, condemning the attack as "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist." He called for calm.

Many right-wing Israelis are furious with Sharon because of his plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in Gaza. CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports that they've tried all sorts of ways to stop it —

After the bus attack, the gunman's body lay on the floor of the bus, his head covered with a black plastic bag. His shirtless upper torso was heavily bruised and bloodied.

The shooting took place on the No. 165, which shuttles between the Arab town of Shfaram in northern Israel and a nearby Jewish town. Around 6 p.m., the bearded gunman, who wore an Israeli army uniform, boarded the bus and opened fire. Police said the attacker wore a skullcap, identifying him as an Orthodox Jew.

Police said the driver and three passengers were killed, all Shfaram residents, and 13, including passengers and two policemen, were wounded.

The windows of the bus were shattered by bullets and by rocks thrown at the gunman by enraged residents. Blood stained some of the seats, and rocks covered the vehicle's floor.

Yitzhak Natan-Zada, 49, the father of the soldier, said he asked the army to find his son, who fled from his unit after refusing to participate in the Gaza pullout. Natan-Zada said he was concerned his son's weapons would fall into the hands of fanatics in Tapuah.

"I wasn't afraid that he would do something. I was afraid of the others," Natan-Zada told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said he had no indication his son would carry out such an act. "I spoke to him two days ago and he was a happy and good-hearted boy and he told me he would find the time to return the weapon," Natan-Zada said.

Tapuah is one of the most extreme Jewish settlements, dominated by followers of U.S.-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, who believed in expelling Arabs from Israel and the West Bank. Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990. Israel TV said Natan-Zada was a deserter from his army unit who grew up in the central Israeli city of Rishon Letzion and moved to the settlement recently.

It was the bloodiest such incident in Israel since 1990, when an Israeli opened fire at a bus stop where Palestinians gathered for job placements, killing seven.

In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Jewish settler, entered a holy site in the West Bank city of Hebron and opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 — the bloodiest attack by a Jewish extremist against Palestinians.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to prevent Jewish settlers from carrying weapons, "because they (the settlers) are dangerous to the security and peace between the two people." Many Jewish settlers have army-issue guns to protect them from Palestinians.

Israeli Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's population of 6.9 million. They remained in their homes during the 1948-49 war that followed creation of the state of Israel, while hundreds of thousands of others fled or were driven out.

Though Israeli Arabs are full citizens, they have suffered from discrimination by Jewish-dominated governments. Many of their towns and villages lack basic infrastructure, and Arab localities are usually at the top of Israel's unemployment lists.

Anger spilled over in October 2000, when thousands of Arabs rioted in support of the Palestinian uprising, which erupted the month before. Israeli police shot and killed 13 Arabs, further infuriating and alienating many Arab citizens.