A Hamas activist was killed by the Israeli occupation army near a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip while two soldiers were lightly wounded in the gunfight. The gunman had hurled grenades and opened fire on an occupation army patrol by the settlement of Dugit on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the Islamic radical group and military sources said Friday.

The occupation army then returned fire, killing the activist, the sources said, adding that two soldiers were lightly wounded in the exchange of gunfire.

The Hamas gunman's identity was given as Karem Ebadeh, 18, by mosque loudspeakers in the Jabalyia refugee camp north of Gaza City, witnesses said.

The latest deaths raise to 2,598 the number of people killed as a direct result of the two-year-old Palestinian uprising, including 1,932 Palestinians and 617 Israelis.



Israel destroys two West Bank military training bases

The Israeli occupation army recently destroyed two of its bases in the northern West Bank because troops there were frequently the target of Palestinian attacks.

Friday's edition of the Haaretz newspaper revealed that the two bases were Sanur and Bezek -- both near the Palestinian town of Jenin.

Sanur was a training base for parachutists while Bezek was used by the elite Golani regiment. Both were dynamited two weeks ago, the paper said.

The Golani training base was transferred provisionally to the northern Jordan Valley, while the parachutists are now training around Nabi Mussa near the Dead Sea.

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A masked member of