HIGHLIGHTS: Israel's Rolling Raids Fail to Stop the New Wave of Palestinian Resistance Attacks||Settlers Attacked in Itmar Believe West Bank Belongs to Israel and Not to Palestinians||William Burns & George Tenet Heading to Middle East||STORY: A Palestinian Resistance man shot and killed three Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, near the Palestinian city of Nablus. The settlers were students at an Orthodox Jewish high school. Settlers said the attacker entered the settlement and opened fire near the high school, where the students study and live before entering the Israeli occupation army.

Itamar is known as a settlement of Orthodox Jewish militants who believe the West Bank belongs to Jews, not Palestinians.
On April 27, two Palestinians infiltrated Adora, a Jewish settlement in a different part of the West Bank, near Hebron, and killed four people. The attackers escaped.

Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli was killed when another Palestinian Resistance man, opened fire on a car in the West Bank. The driver was wounded. It was the first fatal attack on West Bank roads since Israeli forces ended a large-scale assault on the West Bank earlier this month. (Read photo caption)

ISRAEL SURROUNDS MILITANT'S HOUSE

In a late-night Israeli operation, troops surrounded the house of Hassan Yousef, a top leader of the militant Hamas movement in the West Bank city of Ramallah, but he was not at home, witnesses said.

Earlier in Jenin, Israeli forces captured Rami Awad, another Hamas leader, and six other wanted Palestinians, before leaving at midday.

Another eight suspected militants were detained in assaults in other parts of the West Bank.

The rolling raids have failed to stem a new wave of bomber attacks in Israel, where bombers have killed 22 people since Israeli leaders earlier this month declared an end to a crushing six-week sweep for militants in the West Bank.

U.S. ENVOYS SET TO VISIT MIDDLE EAST

As the focus of mounting bloodshed shifted from bombings in Israel to violence in the West Bank -- where the occupation army killed a Palestinian in a raid on the city of Jenin -- the United States pondered changing its peacemaking policy.

A U.S. official, speaking to reporters during a visit to Italy by President Bush, raised the possibility that Washington would set a negotiating timetable for Israel and the Palestinians.

Bush has said in the past that a timeframe for talks was up to the parties themselves.

Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was headed for the Middle East, and CIA director George Tenet was expected to follow later this week, possibly on Friday.

The State Department said Burns would begin his tour in Egypt and then hold talks with the Israelis and Palestinians before heading to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon.

"When we get reports back from Mr. Tenet and ambassador Burns, and when we consult with a lot of other people, we will start to integrate all this information and see what next steps should be taken, keeping in mind that we are committed to a meeting some time in the summer," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Rome.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli investigators check the car of a Jewish settler after an attack, apparently by Palestinian militants, near the Jewish settlement of Ofra, north of the West Bank town of Ramallah Monday May 28, 2002. One person was killed and another wounded. (AP Photo/ZOOM 77)