Palestinian gunman kills three Israeli guards at settlement

har adar — A Palestinian opened fire at Israeli security personnel at the entrance to a West Bank settlement on Tuesday, killing three and wounding another before being shot dead, police said.

The attack, which came as US envoy Jason Greenblatt was in occupied Jerusalem for talks on relaunching the moribund Middle East peace process, drew condemnation from Israeli officials who demanded action from the Palestinian leadership.

A militant “who arrived at the rear gate of Har Adar along with Palestinian labourers entering the settlement... pulled out a weapon and opened fire at the force at the site,” police said. “Three Israelis were killed in the attack, another was wounded and the terrorist was neutralised.”

Police later said the Palestinian had died of his wounds. An AFP correspondent saw a heavy police

Tel Aviv builds settlements at high rate: UN

NEW YORK — Israel continues to build settlements “at a high rate,” the UN envoy for the Middle East said, in defiance of Security Council demands for an end to the expansion of Jewish outposts. Reporting to the council, envoy Nickolay Mladenov accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of using provocative rhetoric to shore up presence around Har Adar, a well-todo settlement northwest of Jerusalem high in the hills close to the Green Line that separates the occupied West Bank from Israel.

The shooter was identified by police as a 37-year-old man from Beit Surik, a Palestinian village near Har Adar, who carried a work the drive for new settlements. From June to September, new construction was mostly in east Jerusalem, with plans for some 2,300 new housing units — a 30 per cent increase from last year, he said. Israel’s illegal settlement activities have continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of the year,” Mladenov told the council. — permit for the settlement. As he approached the checkpoint at the entrance, he aroused the suspicion of security forces, who ordered him to halt, police said.

He then pulled out a pistol and opened fire on border police and civilian security guards, before being shot. —