Israeli soldiers Friday shot and killed a Palestinian boy and wounded his two sisters in the northern West Bank. The dead child was identified as five-year-old Mahmoud Qabha, and two of his sisters are apparently among the wounded. The incident took place near the village of Barta'a, along the West Bank border. The boy died immediately from shots fired at his father's vehicle, a witness, Ghassan Qabha said. One of his sisters was shot in the hand and another sister was wounded also, the witness said. Overnight Friday, a 70-year-old woman was lightly wounded in an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian sources reported. **Mahmoud Abbas Visits Bush*** The U.S. president George Bush said he had a "problem" with an Israeli security fence cutting through the West Bank, as he threw open the doors of the White House for the first time to Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas. But Bush sweetened his criticism of key ally Israel with praise for measures taken to advance peace moves hours before he met Abbas for crucial talks on implementing the bogged-down roadmap for Middle East peace. "I think the wall is a problem, and I have discussed this with Ariel Sharon," Bush said at a joint press appearance with Abbas in the sun-drenched White House Rose Garden. "It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and the Israelis ... with a wall snaking through the West Bank." Israel has admitted a rift is emerging with Washington over the issue, but says the fence, which could eventually meander up to 900 kilometres (550 miles), will prevent suicide bombers from infiltrating from the West Bank. Abbas, wearing a business suit, insisted that Israel had so far only made "hesitant" peace steps. "The new era of peace requires the courageous logic of peace, not the suspicious logic of conflict," he said. "Movement needs to be made in terms of freeing prisoners, lifting the siege on president Arafat, Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas and easing up freedom of movement to Palestinians." The Palestinian leadership views the issue of prisoner releases as critical to building domestic political support for peace moves with Israel. Sharon's government has said however it will not release members of radical groups like Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Bush said he understood the Palestinian position, but made it clear he would not prevail on Israel to change its mind. "I would never ask anybody in any society to let a prisoner out who would then commit terrorist actions," he said. "To break through old hatreds and barriers to peace, the Middle East needs leaders of vision and courage and a determination to serve the interests of their people." Bush announced that he would send Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to the Middle East later this year to discuss how to build and finance a Palestinian state. He also announced the formation of a joint-Palestinian-US economic group to assess conditions in Palestinian lands. Shortly before the Bush-Abbas meeting Israel said it will take a series of measures to advance the peace process, including handing two cities in the West Bank to Palestinian control. Details were to be worked out at a meeting to be held at the beginning of next week between Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan. The statement added that a ministerial committee, which had already approved the release of several hundred Palestinians, would "reconvene at the beginning of August in order to discuss changes in the criteria so as to facilitate the release of hundreds of additional prisoners." **PHOTO CAPTION*** The body of four-year-old Palestinian child Mahmud Qabha is carried by an unidentified relative in the West Bank village of Bartaa, west of Jenin(AFP/Saif Dahlah)