At least three Palestinians died and 31 others were injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah on Friday, as occupation troops surrounded a house in which they believed the head of the Hamas military wing in the city was hiding.
Palestinian sources confirmed three people were killed in the ensuing clashes. According to Palestinians, two of the injured were in critical condition, while six were moderately wounded.
Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn a deadly Israeli attack in Gaza Strip earlier this month. The assembly voted 156-7 with six abstentions to approve a resolution tabled by Arab states that also urged Tel Aviv to immediately withdraw its troops from the Strip.
The November 8 shelling of Beit Hanoun killed 19 civilians, including seven children and five women.
Voting "no" were the United States, Israel, Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. Abstaining were Canada, Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
According to Reuters, American Ambassador John Bolton said the assembly resolution, like the one before the Security Council, was a "one-sided, unbalanced" text that raised questions about the world body's ability to confront global problems.
"We believe that the United Nations is ill-served when its members seek to transform the organisation into a forum that is little more than a self-serving and polemical attack against Israel or the United States," he said.
