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Palestinian killed in fresh raid |
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Wednesday, 21 June 2006A Palestinian militant has been shot dead by Israeli troops during an overnight raid in the West Bank.
The dead man has been named as Daoud Katouni, a local commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus.
Israel said he had masterminded a suicide bombing in March that had killed four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
In Gaza, thousands attended funerals for three children killed by an Israeli missile amid an upsurge of violence.
Tuesday's air strike was part of a stepped-up military campaign against Palestinian groups who fire homemade rockets from Gaza over the border with Israel.
As the funerals went ahead, militants fired three more rockets, bringing the total to more than 140 this month, an Israeli military source said.
There have been some injuries and damage to property during these attacks - mainly in the Israeli town of Sderot - but no deaths.
Bystanders
Mr Katoumi, 25, was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in a refugee camp near the volatile city of Nablus.
Two other militants were wounded, Palestinian hospital sources said.
On Tuesday, Israeli military sources said the air force targeted a car carrying al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants who had been involved in planning attacks on Israel.
But reports from the scene said the militants escaped unhurt, and the blast killed a boy aged five and a slightly older girl, as well as another 16-year-old.
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says the Israeli air force often carries out its air strikes in very crowded areas and innocent bystanders can be hurt or killed.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered around the destroyed vehicle in Jabaliya refugee camp, shouting slogans.
The Israeli army said the car had been a legitimate target, but it regretted any civilian casualties caused by its actions.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya called it a "massacre of children... that is a continuation of the series of random killings being committed against the Palestinian people".
Speaking at a meeting in Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to take "very hard measures, more hard and more painful than those taken in the past" against Palestinians who attacked Israel.
Crossing closed
European monitors say the border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has not opened for the day, because of an Israeli security alert in the area.
The monitors said Israel had closed the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing point with Israel, which had prevented the monitors from reaching Gaza's border crossing with Egypt at Rafah.
The Rafah crossing is Gaza's main gateway to the outside world.
European monitors are deployed at the border terminal under a US-brokered deal, aimed at reviving Gaza's economy following Israel's withdrawal in 2005.
A spokesman for the monitors said they would travel to Rafah to open the crossing as soon as the Israeli alert was lifted.
BBC News
June 21, 2006 |
Wednesday, 21 June 2006
Palestine
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