Israeli killed by Palestinian sniper fire

A 50-year-old Israeli man was killed by Palestinian sniper fire near the Gaza border fence Tuesday, the Israeli army said. The man, a civilian worker for a defense contractor, was working near Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border fence when he was hit. He died a short time later, Israel Radio said. Earlier, Israeli officials said the Palestinian Authority's incitement and hatred of Israel triggered the recent increase in terror attacks. The comments came hours after an Israeli policeman was stabbed in the back in an apparent attack near the West Bank settlement of Adam Monday. The policeman was transferred to a hospital in Jerusalem with the knife embedded in his back. Israeli soldiers searched a nearby Palestinian village for the perpetrator. The incident followed a Sunday afternoon bus bombing in Bat Yam that injured another policeman in what investigators described as a terror attack. The bus driver evacuated the passengers from the bus after they alerted him to a suspicious bag in the rear of the bus. "The attacks have one connecting feature -- the hate and incitement directed by the Palestinian Authority at Israel," a security official told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Israel's security establishment has not identified a guiding hand or organized terrorist infrastructure responsible for the recent attacks, the paper said. The attacks appear to be the acts of lone terrorists influenced by the inciting atmosphere directed at Israel, security officials told the paper. The attacks occurred less than a week before Israel is due to release a third batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of an U.S.-brokered deal to bring the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table with Israel. The latest incidents sparked a fiery debate among government officials, with calls to cancel the next prisoner release. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel "is continuing with the diplomatic process as though there's no terror while the Palestinians are continuing with the terror as though there's no diplomatic process," the Times of Israel reported. "In a normal country, when a bus explodes on Sunday and a police officer is stabbed on Monday, you don't release terrorists as a 'gesture' the following week," Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said. Israel's security establishment recorded 133 attacks motivated by nationalism in September, 135 in October and 167 in November, the Yedioth Ahronoth said. Source: UPI