Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio reported that troops killed two armed Palestinians Thursday night near the Kissufim Crossing, adjacent to the security fence surrounding the Gaza Strip. The two men were armed with an explosive device and grenades, and guns were later found near their bodies, the radio added.
Earlier, a 5-year-old Palestinian boy, Ayman Fares, was killed and his grandfather and another man were critically wounded when Israeli troops opened fire on a residential area at the edge of Khan Younis near a Jewish settlement, Palestinians said. They said the firing was unprovoked. Ayman died after being hit in the head by a bullet, the officials said. The Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire and the soldiers responded, AP reported.
An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded Thursday evening by rocks thrown at him in the West Bank town of Nablus. Also in Nablus on Thursday, Israeli forces detained the wife of an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades activist. According to eyewitnesses, Hiba Atari, the wife of Ibrahim Atari, who is on Israel's wanted list, was arrested at a house in Nablus in which she was staying after the Israeli army demolished the family house two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on an end to bombing attacks inside Israel have failed, PA Minister, Nabil Sha'ath said Thursday. "To our regret, Hamas thwarted every plan," Sha'ath said in an interview to the Palestinian radio station The Voice of Palestine.
Sha'ath added that contacts between the PA and Hamas in recent days had failed to produce any result in the creation of a national unity government that would include all of the Palestinian groups. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
