Israeli soldiers shot and killed an Egyptian man near an Israeli-controlled road crossing in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian police officials said.
Separately, in the West Bank town of Nablus, soldiers raided an apartment building in search of a wanted activist, Palestinians said. Residents said the apartment belonged to Nael el-Sakhal, a member of the military wing of Hamas.
The incidents took place as Israeli Jews marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The shooting of the Egyptian took place at an intersection on the main north-south road through Gaza, near the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. Israeli forces handed over the man's body to Palestinian authorities.
Witnesses said the shooting took place as Israeli soldiers were stopping vehicles at the crossing and forcing passengers to get out. The man confronted soldiers after being told to get out of his car, said one witness.
Medical sources at Kahn Younis Hospital said that the Egyptian man was recognized as 22-year-old Khalil Ibrahim Khazooqi, who heldan Egyptian passport. The Israeli soldiers asked the Palestinian side to send an ambulance to pick up the body of the dead, a Palestinian statement said, adding that the man was not identified until Palestinians who knew him recognized him as an Egyptian.
Palestinian sources in Rafah said that Khazooqi infiltrated into Rafah from Egypt about seven months ago, Xinhua reported. The sources said that the popular resistance committee had kept the young Egyptian under its control in the town, until he managed to escape two days ago.
A Palestinian woman was wounded Sunday night by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip during a brief army incursion, hospital and security sources said.
The 28-year-old woman was hit by bullets when troops opened fire apparently without provocation on Palestinians in Rafah, the sources added.
Despite the Israeli curfew, a shooting incident broke out in Jenin that left one Palestinian man wounded when clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces, Palestinian security officials said, according to AFP.
The officials said intense exchanges of fire occurred and that Israeli tanks had taken up position in various parts of the city.
Despite the curfew and closures, a group of foreign security experts, including US nationals, will start training the Palestinian security forces on Monday, a security official said.
West Bank chief of preventative security, Zuheir Manasra, said the training program would begin in Jericho.
However, the head of Palestinian preventive security in the Gaza Strip complained in remarks that Israel was hindering efforts to retrain Palestinian police. "Training under US auspices is to start on September 19, but Israel is trying to hamper this," Rashid Abu Shpak told the Al-Ayyam daily, saying Israel was banning 50 preventive security officers and 50 intelligence officers from traveling to Jericho to participate in the training. (Albawaba.com)
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