Emmanuel Settlement (West Bank): Palestinian gunmen killed seven Israelis and wounded at least 19 in an attack on a bus near a Jewish settlement in the Northern West Bank on July 16, the Israeli Army said.

Israeli security officials said roadside bombs were detonated under the bullet-proof bus, after which Palestinian snipers perched on a nearby hill opened fire on fleeing passengers and people in other cars.

Israel's Channel Two television and rescue workers said the gunmen were three Palestinian militants disguised as Israeli soldiers. An Army spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the information but said, "As far as we know they escaped and we're searching the area."

The ambush, claimed by two Palestinian groups, was the first deadly attack in nearly four weeks. It came as members of the "quartet" of four powers seeking to restart the ailing Middle East peace process were preparing to meet in New York.

Medical sources told AFP 19 people were injured, eight of them seriously.

The sources said nearly all the injuries were sustained in the shooting phase of the attack.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) issued a statement claiming responsibility for the "heroic operation against the settler bus".

Earlier, an anonymous caller claiming to belong to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades told AFP in the Northern West Bank town of Jenin that the armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group claimed responsibility for the ambush, adding that the three militants behind the attack had escaped unharmed.

As rescue workers evacuated the injured, Israeli helicopters flew overhead. "I broke a window open and I stepped inside, I saw a horrific scene," said Etan Ben Zaka, one of the first medics to have arrived on the scene of the carnage from the nearby settlement of Qedumim. "There were children covered in blood. I was trying to extract an injured child from the wreckage when I realised he was dead," he explained.

Israeli radio said that among the wounded were a two-year old toddler, a pregnant woman and three teenagers.

The Army spokeswoman said that before the attack a curfew was re-imposed in nearby Qalqilya, as the army had "information a terrorist attack was on its way".

Israeli government spokesman Arye Mekel said "the Palestinians are back at their old murderous game of trying to kill as many Israelis and as many Jews as they possibly can".