West Bank settler and Gaza extremist slain

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian stabbed a Jewish settler to death in the West Bank on Tuesday - the first fatal attack on an Israeli there in more than a year - and the killing triggered retaliatory violence in both the West Bank and Jerusalem, a police spokesman said.

In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli air strike killed an Islamist extremist who allegedly was involved in the recent firing of rockets from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula toward the southern Israeli city of Eilat. The air strike was the first targeted killing in Gaza by Israel since a November cease-fire ended eight days of cross-border fighting.

"We will not accept the sporadic firing of rockets from either the Gaza Strip or Sinai," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the killing of Haitham al-Miskhal, who according to the Israeli army was a key terror figure affiliated with the Mujahideen Shura Council, an Islamist group active in Gaza and the Sinai area.

An Israeli aircraft targeted Miskhal in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. An army statement said he was involved in arms production and trafficking and specialized in rockets and explosives that he sold to extremist groups.

The Israeli slain in the West Bank was identified as Evyatar Borovsky, 31, a father of five who lived and worked as a security guard at the settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus, in the northern West Bank. He was killed as he stood at a hitchhiking stop at a major road junction.

A suspect was wounded and taken into custody.

Settlers retaliated by stoning Palestinian cars and torching farmland near villages around Yitzhar, the police and Palestinians said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five Israelis were arrested for setting fire to fields and hurling stones at Palestinian vehicles. He added that security forces were deployed in the area in an effort to prevent further attacks.