A Palestinian doctor was killed Saturday near Hebron, in the southern West Bank, after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint fired at his moving car and it flipped over, Israeli military sources said. (Read photo caption)

Israeli public radio identified him as Mahmud Ali Zahaika, from
the Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood of east Jerusalem.

The incident occurred on the road leading to an Israeli checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Beit Umar, about 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Hebron.

Zahaika, who was travelling in the car with a passenger, appeared about to ram the checkpoint when the soldiers opened fire, sending the vehicle out of control, the military sources said.

It was not immediately clear if the doctor was killed by the shooting or the accident, they said, adding that the unidentified passenger fled the scene in the direction of Beit Umar.

PHOTO CAPTION
Relatives and friends carry the body of Khaled Abu-Kheiran, head of Palestinian intelligence in Halhoul, north of Hebron on the West Bank, during his funeral in the El-Aroub refugee camp in Halhoul north of Hebron, Tuesday, May 14, 2002. Abu-Kheiran and his deputy Ahmed Abd el Aziz Zamarah were killed in an exchange of fire near Halhoul on Monday. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
- May 14 9:26