The Israeli army has killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant and a soldier died in a bomb attack later, raising the spectre of a surge in violence as a U.S. peace envoy prepares to visit the region.
Islamic Jihad issued a statement in Beirut on Saturday claiming responsibility for the bombing on a road Israeli troops were patrolling in the Gaza Strip and said it was "an initial response to the assassination of the martyr Iyad Sawalha".
Sawalha, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing in the northern West Bank, was shot dead by Israeli troops in a pre-dawn house-to-house hunt in Jenin after he threw grenades in an attempt to escape, military sources said.