Israeli troops kill boy, 11
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed and two other children were wounded by fire from Israeli soldiers, Palestinian witnesses said today.
They claimed the fatal shots came from an Israeli guard tower in the Gaza Strip 350 yards from where the children had been playing.
An Israeli army spokesman had no immediate comment on the boy’s death but said Palestinians had been shooting and throwing hand grenades and firebombs towards the military post throughout Saturday from inside the Raffah refugee camp, prompting the army to return fire.
The violence persisted after Israeli and Palestinian security officials failed to agree on a deadline to implement the recommendations of a United States-led commission to end nearly 10 months of fighting.
In a statement the army said it tried to disperse dozens of protesters with rubber bullets but also fired live ammunition in an open area that was far from the crowd.
Doctors said the boy, Khalil Ibrahim Al-Mugrabi, was shot in the head.
A 10-year-old boy was seriously wounded from a bullet wound to the stomach and a third boy, age 12, was also injured.
One Palestinian witness said a group of about 30 children were playing near the refugee camp when he heard a burst of machine gun fire from the direction of the Israeli guard tower.
Previously, the area had been quiet, he said.
Earlier, during scattered violence, yesterday two Israeli soldiers were lightly injured when a roadside bomb exploded as they drove by the West Bank village of Asira Al Shimaliyeh, near Nablus.
There was also an exchange of gunfire in the West Bank town of Hebron which led the Israeli army to impose a curfew on about 30,000 Palestinians living in the central area which is under Israeli control.
About 500 Jewish settlers live in uneasy proximity with their Palestinian neighbours in enclaves downtown.
