JENIN, West Bank (Islamweb Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation troops shot dead two Palestinians, one of them an 11-year-old boy, after surrounding the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
Israeli occupation forces ringed Jenin and Nablus, also in the West Bank, in an overnight operation following a Palestinian Resistance bombing inside Israel on Thursday in which three Israelis were killed.
The new violence complicated a new U.S. peace drive in the region to end 14 months of bloodshed. U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni toured the Gaza Stri with Palestinian officials on Saturday before the new deaths were reported.
``The most important thing to deal with initially is a sustained cease-fire. This will allow us an opportunity to proceed down the path (of peacemaking),'' Zinni told reporters after meeting Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath.
Palestinian medics and family members said Mohammed Sahlah, 11, was shot dead when he and other schoolboys threw stones at an Israeli tank near the Wad Burqin village close to Jenin.
At the southern entrance to the city, occupationtroops opened fire and killed Rami As'oos, 18, when he tried to pass the road blocked by an armored vehicle, witnesses said.
The army said it was checking both incidents.
In the Gaza Strip, a brief gunfight erupted between Palestinian police and the Islamic Jihad group when police tried to arrest a member of the militant organization, witnesses said. There were no reports of casualties.