Israel clamps down after fresh violence

On the Palestinian side, witnesses said Israeli forces raided the West Bank village of Burqa early on Monday to hunt for suspected militants. Two Palestinian men were shot dead in the battle, one of them a wanted militant, medical sources said.

In the latest shooting attack, a Palestinian gunmen shot at the car of a Jewish settler family as it drove towards the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing the parents instantly and wounding their children, aged three years and six months, the Army said.

At the scene, a baby’s milk bottle stood on the asphalt road next to the blanket-covered bodies of the parents. ‘‘Due to the last wave of attacks…it was decided to completely restrict Palestinian movement in the areas of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Ramallah, with the exception of medical and humanitarian cases,’’ the Army said in a statement.

Israel swept into seven West Bank cities in June following back-to-back suicide bombings in Jerusalem, imposing curfews in the urban centres and conducting frequent raids to arrest suspected militants.

The Army had begun to ease slightly the closures and curfews that kept 700,000 Palestinians largely confined to their homes. But following Sunday’s attacks, Israeli spokesman Raanan Gissin said Israel suspended talks due this week with Palestinians on security and easing hardships.

At UN headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the two sides to stop the cycle of attacks and retaliation, saying it fed ‘‘anger and hatred.’’

Palestinian militants resorted to‘‘indiscriminate terror’’ while Israel’s retaliation was ‘‘equally devastating in its effects on ordinary people,’’ he said in a statement. (Reuters)