Hamas kills four Israeli civilians in West Bank

Hamas earlier issued a statement praising the killing of the four and called for a celebration rally later Tuesday night in the Gaza Strip.

"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade claims full responsibility," it said in a later statement, reffering to the military wing of Hamas.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said a car in which the victims were travelling came under fire on a road between the settlement and the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, near the city of Hebron.

According to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, preliminary reports show the gunmen approached the vehicle and shot the victims multiple times at point-blank range.  

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the attack "painful and grave."

He said he had informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on his way to Washington for a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to renew direct peace talks after a 20-month hiatus.

"The army and the security forces will do everything they can to lay their hands on the murderers," Barak said in a statement.

It was the first fatal attack on Israelis in the West Bank since June 14, when a policeman was killed and two others wounded, also in the Hebron area.

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic Hamas movement was quick to praise the shooting, while at first not explicitly taking responsibility for it.

"Hamas blesses the Hebron operation and considers it as a normal reaction to the occupation crime," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

Netanyahu has said the latest attempt to reach a binding peace treaty with the Palestinians must be based on "firm securityarrangements" to ensure that future Palestinian rule in the West Bank does not lead to the territory becoming a staging point for attacks on Israelis.

Abbas says that talks will implode unless there is a full halt to Israeli settlement building.