JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli army checkpoint and was shot dead on Tuesday, jarring a breakthrough cease-fire ahead of an Israeli-Palestinian summit to bolster a shaky new Middle East peace plan.[...]

An Israeli army spokesman said a Palestinian armed with a pistol opened fire at a military roadblock near the West Bank city of Tulkarm and was shot dead by soldiers. There were no other casualties or any immediate claim of responsibility.

A Bulgarian road worker was killed in a shooting attack on Monday in the West Bank claimed by a cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group affiliated with the Fatah (news - web sites) faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites).

Arafat told reporters that Palestinian security forces had arrested those behind the ambush but did not elaborate. [...]

[...]Israel pulled forces back from much of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on Sunday and Monday, restoring general free movement for Palestinians for the first time in two-and-a-half years. The withdrawal was part of a U.S.-mediated disengagement deal meant to advance the road map, which charts the way to a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied land by 2005.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz confirmed Israel would follow up by handing over the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, but said details had to be ironed out to ensure Jewish settlers nearby or access to a Jewish shrine would not be endangered.

But a refusal of West Bank-based militants in Fatah to endorse the temporary truce it proclaimed with Islamic radicals in Gaza on Sunday could hold up a broader Israeli pullback.[...]