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Israeli cop hurt

in bomb attack

GAZA: Moslem militants in Gaza lightly wounded an Israeli border policeman when they detonated a bomb beside a joint Israel-PLO jeep patrol on Sunday, Israel Radio said.

Initial reports had said the bomb was thrown at an Israeli patrol. Israeli security sources earlier said there were no wounded in the incident in the southern Gaza Strip. The attackers escaped.

In Gaza, the Islamic Salvation Front claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian self-rule began in Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho in May 1994.

Under the interim peace deal, Jewish settlements remain and are guarded by Israeli troops. Joint Israel-PLO patrols police major roads.

Israel Radio said the blast happened when a joint patrol in two jeeps, one carrying Israelis and the other Palestinian police, passed a junction near Jewish settlements.

Guerrillas opposed to the peace deal have killed scores of Israelis, mostly in suicide bomb attacks.

The Islamic Salvation Front was formed about two months ago by former members of Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have led opposition to the peace deal.-Reuter