Gunmen killed four people in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank today in the first such attack since Israel launched a four-week-old military sweep through Palestinian-ruled cities.
A UN mission to find out what happened during Israel's three-week military operation in the Jenin refugee camp waited in Geneva for a green light to depart for the region.
UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan agreed to hold the team back at the request of Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres to give the Israeli cabinet time to discuss the fact-finding mission in a meeting tomorrow, a UN official said.
The Israeli army said four people had been killed and six wounded, one of them severely, in the attack by one or two gunmen on Adora, a few kilometres (miles) west of the divided city of Hebron. The army had earlier put the death toll at five.
The attack came a day after US President George W. Bush insisted Israel must end its military offensive now , after another Israeli raid defied his earlier demands.
"The attack this morning against Israeli citizens in the West Bank proves that terror has not yet been eradicated," Israeli government spokesman Mr Aryeh Mekel said.
There was no immediate Palestinian comment. Hebron was the only big West Bank city not reoccupied in Israel's offensive, perhaps because the army feared a full-scale assault would endanger about 400 Jewish settlers living in heavily guarded enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Adora and the assailants appeared to have escaped.
"Everything here is confusion," Adora resident Mr Rut Bar Yosef told Israel radio. "Everyone is in shock, not absorbing it," he said.
In Bethlehem, an Israeli sniper wounded a Palestinian in the besieged Church of the Nativity amid an apparent setback in efforts to resolve the 24-day-old standoffs peacefully.
"The man was messing with some cables near the door of the church and he was armed so we fired on him. He will be taken by ambulance for medical treatment," a military source said.
Bethlehem lawmaker Mr Salah Taamari consulted Mr Yasser Arafat at the besieged Palestinian president's Ramallah compound on talks with Israel aimed at ending the church stalemate.
But a presidential adviser, Mr Nabil Abu Rdainah, said later that Mr Arafat had given Mr Taamari no instructions.
About 200 demonstrators marched towards Mr Arafat's compound, vowing to stage similar protests every day until the Ramallah siege is lifted. Israeli troops dispersed them with tear gas.
Gunfire has often erupted around the Bethlehem church since Palestinian fighters took refuge there on April 2nd.
Israel says militants inside are holding hostage scores of civilians, including clergymen and nuns. Palestinians deny anyone is being held at the shrine against their will.