An Israeli soldier and six Palestinians were killed in violent confrontations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Saturday.
The deadly violence flared again as thousands joined funeral processions for the latest victims of the intifada or Palestinian uprising, bringing to 210 the number of people killed over the past six weeks, most of them Palestinian.
Two Palestinians, Oussama Khalil al-Baouab, 28, and Majid Hussein Radouan, 32, were killed during an Israeli bombardment of El-Bireh in the West Bank, hospital sources said late Saturday. Five people were also reported injured after the two-hour attack.
Israeli reserve staff sergeant Avner Shalom, 28, died from his wounds in the Sorocca de Beer Sheba hospital a few hours after being shot by Palestinians near the Jewish settlements of Gush Katif.
He was driving in a jeep with another soldier when a Palestinian car overtook them and two Palestinian customs officers inside opened fire, according to the Israeli military.
The troops then returned fire and in the exchange that followed, two Palestinians, Mohammed Yassin al-Madhun, 24, et Munzer Hammad Yassin, 23, were killed, with two Israelis wounded, the spokesman said.
Two other Palestinians were killed during the day -- Mussa el-Dekis, 15, shot in the chest during clashes at Erez, the main crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and Monib Abu Munshar, shot in the heart during a clash between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Hebron.
The deaths bring to six the number of Palestinians killed in Saturday's clashes, and took the toll from the last six weeks of violence to 210 killed, nearly all Palestinians, since Israeli rightwinger Ariel Sharon made his provocative visit September 28 to Jerusalem's mosque compound.
Following the Gush Katif incident, the army closed off the main road linking Gaza to Khan Yunes using tanks. The convoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mary Robinson, which had been to Khan Yunes was blocked on its return journey to Gaza, an AFP correspondent on the spot reported.
In total, 16 Palestinians were wounded in the Gaza Strip -- 10 at Erey and six at Gush Katif, one of whom was in a critical condition late Tuesday. In the West Bank, 16 more Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets in Ramallah and four more in Hebron.
In Bethlehem, a Russian-American photographer working for the Associated Press news agency, Yola Monakhov, was shot and wounded in the abdomen and taken to Jerusalem's Hadassa hospital.
Palestinian sources said that Israeli tanks fired shells near the Jewish settlement of Psagot in the West Bank on the village of El-Bireh, slightly damaging four new buildings.
The same sources said there was an exchange of fire between Palestinians on one side and Israeli troops and settlers on the other in Hares near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.
Thousands of people also marched through the streets of Gaza City and the nearby Jabalia refugee camp for the funerals of two Palestinians killed in separate clashes in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Gunmen fired into the air as the crowds carried the bodies, draped in Palestinian flags, through the streets, chanting "Revenge, Revenge."
There were similar scenes in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in the funerals of two men killed in violence there the day before and in Hebron where one man was shot dead Friday.
A total of five Palestinians were killed on Friday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and an Israeli soldier was shot dead in Bethlehem. A sixth Palestinian died Saturday from bullet wounds suffered the day before.
In northern Israel, several thousand people took to the streets in Arab towns to commemorate the deaths of Israeli Arabs killed by Israeli security forces in clashes last month that followed protests in support of the Palestinian Intifada, witnesses said – GAZA STRIP (AFP)
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