Ma’aleh Efrayim resident Moshe Moreno told Army Radio on Thursday that he and his wife, Shira, were driving on Route 60 when a car pulled up behind them and began “riding his bumper.”

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Moreno said he waved to the driver, signaling him to pass, and “then we took a turn and the car passed us and opened fire.”

The terrorists sprayed the car with automatic rifle fire and the vehicle spun out of control, overturning on the side of the road.

The attackers approached the car when suddenly, amid the hail of gunfire, one of their rifles malfunctioned, and the Morenos were able to escape.

“One of the guns jammed and we took the chance to roll out of the car and take cover,” Moshe said.

The Morenos hid in a ditch and called police, who rushed to the scene to search for the assailants.

Moreno added that he and his wife, who was lightly wounded, were lucky that the shooting took place as they were driving on an incline, saying that if the gunmen had attacked as they were heading downhill they would probably have plunged off the road to their deaths.

Speaking from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder, Moreno told Channel 2 that as the gunmen passed his car they “opened fire from, at most, one meter away. Luckily, I was only hit in the shoulder.”

The incident was the second in two days in the West Bank, both claimed by Hamas. In a terror attack outside Kiryat Arba on Tuesday night, gunmen riddled a car with bullets, killing four residents of the settlement of Beit Hagai.

Moments after that shooting, paramedics rushed to the scene, including Zaka rescue and recovery organization volunteer Maimon Even-Haim, whose wife, Kochava, was among the four victims.

Even-Haim’s friends in the rescue unit tried to keep him from reaching the car where his wife lay mortally wounded, but he could not be swayed.

Speaking to Channel 2 on Wednesday, Even-Haim said, “She looked so beautiful, so pure. I kept telling her, I’m here, I’m here, but she didn’t move.”

Even-Haim said his colleagues told him his wife died instantly, but when he arrived he could tell that “she didn’t. I saw her face and could tell she didn’t die right away.”

A Palestinian Authority security source said on Thursday that its men had seized the car used in the Beit Hagai attack.

The source said that the car was found in Hebron and that the PA security forces were now questioning several suspects linked to the vehicle.

The source refused to comment on reports that the PA has arrested two men suspected of involvement in the attack.

The PA security forces have arrested more than 300 Palestinians from different parts of the West Bank since the attack.

The crackdown has been described as the largest security operation by the PA since its inception.

Hamas, however, announced that the number of those arrested by the PA in the past 48 hours had reached 550. It said another 1,500 Palestinians suspected of affiliation with Hamas had been summoned for interrogation by the various branches of the PA’s security services.

Hamas said that the detainees included prominent political figures, physicians, engineers, university students, former security prisoners who were released from Israeli jails, and relatives and friends of Hamas legislators living in the West Bank.

Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that the Fatah-dominated security forces also rounded up dozens of worshipers as they emerged from mosques following evening prayers in many cities and villages.

Judea and Samaria Police officers who arrived on the scene found an Israeli vehicle with bullet marks. “The vehicle descended down a nearby slope,” police said. The officers who arrived in the area found one person seriously injured and another person slightly injured.

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Magen David Adom rushed the two Israelis to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem; a man aged around 30 in moderate to serious condition suffering from a gunshot wound to the knee, and a woman aged around 30 who was injured in the resulting accident. Both are conscious and stable, paramedics said.

The event is being treated as a terror attack. Security forces were on the scene searching for the terrorists’ vehicle.

The shooting came the day after four Israelis were killed Tuesday night in a devastating shooting attack in the West Bank believed to have been aimed at torpedoing the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks set to kick off on Wednesday in Washington  DC.

 The four victims, described by a settler spokesman as a couple and two hitchhikers – were driving on Route 60 near the entrance to Kiryat Arba when their vehicle came under fire. The victims were named as Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Even-Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24, all from Beit Hagai. The Ames couple had six children, including a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler.

Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press late Tuesday that Hamas carried out the attack.

The four victims, described by a settler spokesman as a couple and two hitchhikers – were driving on Route 60 near the entrance to Kiryat Arba when their vehicle came under fire.

The victims were named as Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Ben- Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24, all from Beit Hagai. The Ames couple had six children, including a oneand- a-half-year-old toddler.

Zaka volunteer Momy Ben- Haim was dispatched to the scene of the attack with his colleagues, when to his horror he discovered that his wife was among the dead.

“We saw a crying volunteer, and at first we did not understand what was happening – he has seen many disasters before,” Zaka volunteer Isaac Bernstein told The Jerusalem Post.

“Then he started shouting, ‘That’s my wife! That’s my wife!’ We took him away from the scene immediately,” Bernstein added.

Ben-Haim was taken to his home in Beit Hagai by his colleagues.

“When we arrived on the scene, all four doors of the car were open and four bodies were strewn on the road,” Magen David Adom paramedic Guy Ronen told The Jerusalem Post. “We saw that the vital organs had been struck by a very large number of bullets, and that there was no chance of saving their lives,” he added.

“It was a very difficult scene. We had learned to forget scenes like this in recent years,” Ronen said.

The IDF was investigating two possibilities – that Palestinian terrorists had laid an ambush alongside the road or that the shots were fired from a passing car.

IDF troops immediately launched searches for the perpetrators and the Central Command raised its level of alert, out of fear that Palestinian terrorists will increase efforts to perpetrate attacks in the coming days with the goal of torpedoing the peace summit in Washington.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who heard about Washington to relaunch direct talks with the Palestinians, said upon landing that he would speak in the evening with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and tell her that this “criminal attack” proves again the need for Israel to stand steadfastly by its security demands.

Netanyahu said that his heart goes out to the families of the victims, and that terrorism would not determine Israel’s borders or the future of the settlements.

Netanyahu spoke on the plane with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.

Netanyahu, according to his office, directed the security branches to act “without any diplomatic constraints against the murderers, and act aggressively against those who sent them.”

Officials in the prime minister’s entourage said that while Netanyahu was outraged by the attack, there was no intention of canceling the trip and returning to Israel.

Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene soon after the shooting at around 7:30 p.m. and declared the four people dead. Paramedics added that one of the women may have been pregnant.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, “Shots were fired from close range at the vehicle at approximately 7:30 p.m. All four occupants of the vehicle were shot dead. Security forces are searching for the attackers.”

According to eyewitness reports, the terrorists succeeded in hitting the passengers in their initial fire, but then approached the car and shot the occupants again at close range.

Following the attack, the Israel Police Operations Branch sent out an order to all officers in the Judea and Samaria district calling on them to increase their awareness and be on the look out for potential terror attacks, while maintaining security in the area.

Barak was also briefed on the attack by Ashkenazi and Diskin.

“This is a very grave incident,” Barak said. “The IDF and Israeli security forces will do everything they can to capture the murderers.

“Israel will not allow terrorists to lift their heads and will exact a price from the murderers and those who sent them. This is likely an attempt by terrorist lowlifes to stymie the diplomatic process and to hurt the chances of the talks opening in Washington.”

Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who is acting premier during Netanyahu’s absence, released a statement, saying that he was in close contact with Barak and with Netanyahu’s military attache and was constantly receiving updates.

“Unfortunately it has once again been proven that while we are working to find ways to advance peace and coexistence, there are those who will continue trying to commit acts of terror and murdering innocents,” Shalom said.

“Now it is clearer than ever that the real obstacles to peace are terror and the extremists who would do anything to inflame the entire region. The PA must fulfill its obligations in the territories.”

The head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, spoke with his Palestinian counterparts and updated them regarding the attack. PA security forces were conducting their own investigation into the shooting.

It was unclear if the attack was carried out by an established terror cell or by a small group of attackers not affiliated with a larger terrorist group.

Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press late Tuesday that Hamas carried out the attack.

While the IDF apparently did not have specific intelligence regarding the Tuesday night’s shooting, there had been concern that terror groups would use the launching of direct peace talks to perpetrate attacks in the West Bank.

Ashkenazi and OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi had toured Judea and Samaria earlier this week and met with brigade commanders.

Ashkenazi asked the commanders to raise their level of vigilance for the duration of the summit in Washington out of fear that either Hamas, Islamic Jihad or even al-Qaida-affiliated elements would launch attacks against Israel.

The forces were also asked to avoid friction with the Palestinian civilian population and to demonstrate sensitivity at the crossings between Israel and the West Bank.

The US labeled the deadly shooting Tuesday “a tragedy” while urging both sides not to take steps that would jeopardize direct peace negotiations, set to be launched Thursday.

“Any time one human being takes out a weapon and fires and kills other human beings, it’s a tragedy,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley following the attack, adding that the US still didn’t know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We are cognizant that there could be external events that can have an impact on the environment.

We also are cognizant that there may well be actors in the region who are deliberately making these kinds of attacks in order to sabotage the process,” he said.

“We are very aware that as we go forward in this process, not everyone sees this in the same way, and there are those who will do whatever they can to disrupt or derail the process.”

The head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, Tzvika Bar-Hai, called on Netanyahu to cancel the Washington talks.

“There is no place for negotiations with those who respond with deadly fire to our hand outstretched for peace,” he said.

“It is time for the leaders of Israel to wake up from the illusion of false peace,” Bar-Hai added.

“We’re talking about one of the worst terrorist attacks in the past few years,” said Naftali Bennet, director-general of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

“We’re asking that the prime minister immediately turn the plane around and come back to Israel. It’s not possible, while we’re holding funerals, that he can stay there. And we’re calling on him, tomorrow morning, to renew the building in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

The council announced Tuesday night that it would respond to the attack by unilaterally ending the construction freeze and starting to build on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night after the attack, several youths gathered at the entrance to Kiryat Arba protesting the talks in Washington.

Right-wing MKs also called for the talks to be frozen.

“The terror attack near Kiryat Arba is a reminder to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who his partners are,” said MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union). “The Likud government’s negotiations with the terrorist Abu Mazen are an energy boost to murder and terror.

The blood of those harmed is upon the head of the Likud government.”

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said, “Now it is clear – the most violent period is when there are negotiations. Netanyahu must immediately freeze the talks and concentrate on promising peace for Israeli civilians.”

Ariel’s fellow party member MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) joined the calls for Netanyahu to immediately return to Israel.

“Everyone who in recent months was a partner to the myth that Abu Mazen controlled the field must come to their senses and immediately suspend the activities to strengthen the Palestinian army that is being established with American assistance,” said Eldad.

“Such a body is not capable of effectively combating Hamas, and we should not be surprised if its weapons are directed against us.”

Within the coalition, ministers were much less willing to consider freezing the talks, despite the deadly attack.

“I do not think that we need to give a prize to the murderers by not holding talks,” said Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar. “As we see an Israeli hand extended to peace, we see a murderous response on the part of Palestinians.”

Coalition Chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) placed the blame not on the talks themselves, but on coalition partner Barak.

“Unfortunately all of the warnings that the policy of removing checkpoints and easing barriers for Palestinians would lead to terror have come to fruition.

“Defense Minister Barak needs to do his job as the person who is responsible for the security of Israeli civilians and not as a foreign minister who deals in diplomacy,” complained Elkin. “The answer to the attack needs to be an announcement of an immediate cessation of the building moratorium, renewing building in Judea and Samaria and stopping all gestures to the Palestinians.”

Among rank-and-file Likud MKs, many of whom have taken more right-wing stands than those of the party’s ministers, the responses were more ambiguous regarding the future of the talks.

“The terror organizations are passing on a clear message when they return to harming innocent Israeli civilians,” said MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), considered to be one of the most right-wing members of Likud’s Knesset faction.

“This is a warning light to all those who believe that concessions on the Land of Israel will lead to a solution to the conflict.

In the face of terror, one must respond with a strong hand without concessions.”

“We received an additional proof this evening of whom we are dealing, and once again the question arises who our partner is on the opposite side,” said MK Danny Danon (Likud). “We knew that Abu Mazen has no control in the Gaza Strip and, as we saw this evening, he has none in the West Bank either.”

Danon called on Netanyahu to make a condemnation of the attack by Abbas a condition for going ahead with the Washington summit.

On the opposite side of the aisle, MK Ze’ev Bielski (Kadima) said in response that “this horrific and murderous attack that occurred tonight was an attempt to weaken the peace talks through terror. We are witnesses to a condemnable act of murder of innocents. I am certain that the security forces will find the terrorists.

“The peace talks must continue because in the end, there is no way other than through an agreement to prevent terror,” he concluded.

Gil Hoffman, Herb Keinon, and Hilary Leila Krieger, and Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.

Speaking to the editor of the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency aboard his plane, Abbas said in his message: “You are living on land that doesn’t belong to you and this is impossible.”

Abbas made the statement before the attack.His remarks were published as the main news item of the news agency and other Palestinian media outlets.The editor asked Abbas what message he had for the settlers on the eve of the direct talks with Israel.

Abbas replied: “The settlers are sitting on lands that are not theirs. I tell them that this is not your land and you know that. You can’t impose facts on the ground, because the settlements are illegal and will be removed.”

Meanwhile, PA security sources said that the attack may have been carried out by a cell belonging to either Hamas or Islamic Jihad. A Hamas spokesman told AP on Tuesday night that it had carried out the attack.

The sources said that the attack was clearly designed to foil the US-sponsored direct talks between Israel and the PA and embarrass Abbas.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum defended the attack as a “natural response to Zionist crimes” but stopped short of endorsing it.

Islamic Jihad welcomed the attack, saying it was intended to send a warning to the Palestinian negotiators in Washington.