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Two Palestinians killed, seven injured as tide of violence rises
Two Palestinians killed, seven injured as tide of violence rises
GAZA CITY, Feb 13 (AFP) -
Two Palestinians were killed Tuesday and seven others wounded as Israeli-Palestinian violence continued an upward climb since Israeli right-wing leader Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister a week ago.
In what Palestinians branded a "war crime," Israel assassinated Massud Ayyad, 50, an officer in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's personal security force who Israel said was an agent of the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla movement suspected of orchestrating a string of terror attacks.
A Palestinian teenager also was killed by Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, hospital and Palestinian security officials said, but the army issued a categorical denial.
Bilal Ramadan, 14, was shot in the chest near the settlement of Netzarim as he was walking home from school but witnesses and Palestinian security officials said there were no clashes at the time.
"The Israeli army shot at a group of children standing by the side of the road. One was shot in the chest and was taken to Shifa hospital. The source of the fire was the Israeli position," said Saeb Al-Ajez, the head of national security in the northern Gaza Strip.
The army denied it had killed the boy.
"The Palestinian allegations that we fired in this area are lies and are completely unfounded," an army spokesman said. "The army did not fire with live or rubber-coated bullets."
Tuesday's deaths brought to 402 the number of people killed since the Palestinian uprising erupted in late September, most of them Palestinians.
Sporadic clashes also raged in the West Bank and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, strongest in Khan Yunis refugee camp, where three Palestinians were injured after the army fired heavy weapons in response to Palestinian gunfire, witnesses said.
Members of a visiting UN human rights committee were also caught up in the fighting, but were not injured, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said a Jewish settler was lightly injured after coming under Palestinian fire against the settlement of Neve Dekalim, which faces the Khan Yunis.
The area was the scene of an intense gunfight and subsequent Israeli bombardment the day before that left dozens injured.
A bomb also exploded in the path of an army bulldozer at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt, but no injuries were reported, the army said.
In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, witnesses said soldiers beat up a Palestinian man at a checkpoint, hitting him repeatedly with batons. The soldiers fired tear gas to keep back crowds angered by the incident.
In the southern West Bank town of Hebron, three Palestinian stone-throwers were lightly wounded, medical officials said, when Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated steel bullets.