Israeli army kills six as commando dies

THE Israeli army shot dead six Palestinians yesterday and an Israeli special forces officer was killed in a fierce all-night gunfight during a raid on Palestinian militants.

Army commandos raided a residential building in the Ein Beit-Ilma refugee camp in the city of Nablus, killing two senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Israeli army said special forces Lieutenant Moran Vardi, 25, was killed and three commandos were wounded in exchanges of fire.

Residents said the commandos also shot and killed two neighbours - a 50-year-old Palestinian academic and his 16-year-old son - at the door of their apartment.

Israeli military sources said a militant who survived the initial gunfight had taken refuge in an adjacent flat.

Relatives of Khaled Salah, an engineering professor at Nablus’s al-Najah University, said that troops who rang the bell on his apartment door shot him as soon as he opened it and then fired at his son killing him.

In Gaza, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants who tried to assault their guard post.