Israeli troops kill Palestinians

26/12/2009| IslamWeb

Israeli soldiers have killed six Palestinians in two separate incidents.

Three of the deaths occurred when Palestinians trying to cross the security barrier from the Gaza Strip into Israel were shot on Saturday, news agencies reported citing a Palestinian medical source.

Palestinian medics and sources said the other three Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers during a West Bank raid.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians suspected of trying to infiltrate from Gaza.

However, a Hamas security source said the three were apparently civilians collecting scrap metal in an industrial zone near the Israeli border.

West Bank killings

Describing the West Bank raid, Palestinian medics and witnesses said Israeli soldiers surrounded the homes of three members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and then killed all three.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the raid, which took place two days after the same group was one of two to claim responsibility for the fatal shooting of an Israeli settler on Thursday on a West Bank road.

The Israeli was the first to get killed in a Palestinian attack in about eight months in the West Bank, territory Israel occupied in a 1967 war and which Palestinians seek for a state.

Sources in Fatah said the three men targeted by the Israelis had been disarmed under security measures taken by Abbas's police force.

At least one had previously been on an Israeli wanted list.

The violence came a day before the anniversary of a Gaza war that killed some 1,500 Palestinians, and underscored rising tensions as US-sponsored ‘peace talks’ have remained stalled for a year.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian protesters hurl stones at Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin, in the West Bank.

Al-Jazeera