- GAZA CITY (AFP) -
A Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli tank fire in the town of Deir
el-Balah in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian security source said.
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- Mohsen al-Atrash, 23, was unarmed when he was killed
by a tank shell near the central Gaza Strip Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom,
the source said.
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- An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers had opened fire
after a mortar round fired by Palestinians struck near the settlement without
causing any damage.
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- Atrash's death was the only one recorded Wednesday in
the nearly 20-month-old Palestinian uprising that has left more than 2,000
people dead.
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- Wednesday morning, Israeli troops backed by four tanks
and an armored bulldozer, pushed 200 meters (yards) into a Palestinian
controlled sector of the southern Gaza Strip early Wednesday and destroyed
three houses, Palestinian security sources said.
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- The raid into Rafah came the morning after two Palestinians
were slightly wounded by Israeli gunfire in the same area, near the border
with Egypt.
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- The raid ended around after around five hours. Israeli
forces destroyed three Palestinian houses and damaged several others, Palestinian
sources said.
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- An army spokesman for his part reported Palestinian gunfire
against the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim near Rafah. No one was wounded,
he said.
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- An Israeli military source also said two mortar bombs
were fired late Tuesday against at the southern Gaza Strip Jewish settlement
block of Gush Katif, where a house was damaged.
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- At the Mawasi checkpoint near Rafah, three Palestinian
women were also injured by Israelis who fired live rounds at them as they
tried to reach their homes in the Mawasi enclave, under curfew since Sunday
when a Jewish settler was killed there by a Palestinian employee.
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- The women were not seriously injured, medics said.
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- In another incident in the Gaza Strip, the army said
it had destroyed a tunnel in Rafah that was connected with the Egyptian
side of the border.
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- The tunnel, whose entrance was camouflaged in the shower
of a home, had both telephone and electricity cables running along.
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- Separately, a Palestinian was shot and seriously wounded
after Israeli troops, backed by tanks, pushed several hundred metres (yards)
into the Palestinian-controlled center of Hebron in the West Bank, a hospital
source said.
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- Civilian Ashraf Khatib, 34, was shot in the chest during
gunfire before the Israeli troops pulled out.
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- An army spokesman denied that there had been an incursion,
saying troops had opened fire with light arms in response to shooting at
Jewish homes.
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- On Tuesday, an Israeli army moved into the Palestinian
sector of Hebron and arrested a local activist of the Islamic radical group
Hamas.
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- Hebron is a Palestinian city, but there is an enclave
of 500 heavily armed Jewish settlers living there surrounded by 120,000
Palestinians and protected by the Israeli army.
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