- GAZA (Reuters) -- Israeli
soldiers have shot dead two Palestinian boys aged 9 and 15 in a confrontation
with stone-throwing protesters in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian
medics say.
-
- In West Bank violence overnight, medics said soldiers
killed a Palestinian civilian in a similar stand-off in Balata refugee
camp, a militant stronghold. Military sources said the man had fired a
rifle at troops, who then shot him.
-
- Medics said troops shot dead 9-year-old Ehab Shattat
and Ishaq Abu Taleb, 15, in two separate incidents in Beit Hanoun, where
Israeli forces have been operating to round up militants since Monday.
An adult was seriously wounded.
-
- Ehab's father said he heard shooting after the boy went
to buy ice cream in a local market.
-
- "I went outside and found my son lying on the ground,"
about 20 metres (yards) from his home, Abdel-Karim Shattat told reporters
at the local Al Awda hospital, clutching a bullet doctors had extracted
from his son's chest.
-
- Military sources said soldiers fired warning shots into
the air when protesters threw cement blocks and stones at them. The Israeli
army said it was checking the report of Ehab's death and had no immediate
comment on the teenager's killing.
-
- Shortly beforehand, several hundred mourners had gathered
in Beit Hanoun to bury a 22-year-old Palestinian killed during clashes
with soldiers in the town on Friday.
-
- Beit Hanoun, home to 30,000 Palestinians, has been besieged
by military forces since Monday, when Palestinian militants near the area
launched makeshift rockets at a southern Israeli town, killing two Israelis,
including a three-year-old boy.
-
- Military sources have said the soldiers could remain
in the area for months to prevent further rocket attacks. Palestinian militants
fired two more makeshift rockets towards southern Israel on Saturday, causing
no casualties.
-
- Violence has surged in the Gaza Strip, a desert area
home to 1.3 million Palestinians and 7,500 Jewish settlers, since Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put forward a plan to evacuate soldiers and
settlers from Gaza by the end of 2005.
-
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