Israeli troops kill two Palestinians
Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip early today.
In Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp, a Palestinian taxi driver was shot dead as he watched Israeli tanks rumble past, Palestinian witnesses said.
The army said it did not know if it had hit anyone, but that soldiers had returned fire after they were attacked with anti-tank missiles, gunfire and grenades.
Israeli forces have been conducting operations in Gaza and the West Bank almost every night, arresting suspected militants or destroying buildings.
Early yesterday, three Palestinians were killed in a fierce exchange of fire between gunmen and Israeli forces in the same area.
In the West Bank village of Seide, meanwhile, Israeli troops knocked down a two-storey house belonging to a suspected militant.
Ahmed Ajaj, 17, was killed when the soldiers fired to disperse residents who went to look at the rubble in the morning, Palestinian officials said.
The house belonged to Osama Ashkar, a militant with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group loosely affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
Twelve people lived in the house, Palestinian officials said.
The army said Ashkar was responsible for sending a gunman who killed five people, including a mother and her two young sons, in a shooting rampage on an Israeli kibbutz.
He also planned and provided weapons for a separate attack on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in which three Israelis were killed, they said.
Israel demolishes the homes of militants and suspected militants in an attempt to deter Palestinians from carrying out attacks on Israelis. Palestinians condemn the measure and say it violates international law.
