A 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire Saturday east of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sajahia. Earlier, two Hamas members, jailed by Israel, were apprehended early Saturday morning after they managed to escape Friday afternoon from prison.
The two - who are serving life sentences - are Mohammed Haj Salah, 27, from Jenin and Nizar Mohammed Ramadan, 28, from Nablus, both of them members of the military wing of Hamas.
Salah was sentenced to life in prison and an additional ten years for a 1994 attack in which he detonated a booby-trapped car next to a bus in Afula. Ramadan was sentenced to two life sentences for the killing of two security guards at the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar in 1998.
Meanwhile, a West Bank leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on an Israeli polling station on Thursday, was detained by Israeli troops Friday night, Palestinian security sources said.
Majid el Masri and another member of the group were caught hiding in Nablus, they said. Masri, 28, is the Al Aqsa leader in the Rafidia neighborhood of Nablus. He also used the name Abu Mojahed and was a spokesman for the group in the West Bank.
In retaliation for Thuesday's attack that left six dead, the Israeli army destroyed the houses of the two assailants. Additionally, the army detained eight of their brothers, Palestinian security sources said.
In another develoment, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the killing of a U.N. employee, saying he "expected Israel to carry out a rigorous investigation of the incident, share its results with the United Nations and hold accountable those responsible," a U.N. spokesman said Friday.
Israel has said an inquiry was under way into last week's killing of British aid worker Iain Hook during a clash with Palestinians in Jenin. (Albawaba.com)
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