Israel demolishes homes of terrorist suspects

ISRAELI troops demolished the homes of four Palestinian terror suspects and raided a Gaza Strip town yesterday, as negotiators failed to reach agreement, but scheduled more talks on a gradual Israeli troop pullback from some Palestinian areas.

During Israel's incursion into the Gaza town of Beit Lahia, hundreds of children and teenagers threw stones at four Israeli tanks blocking the main road. Soldiers fired from a tank-mounted machine gun to drive back the crowd, killing a 17-year-old boy with a shot to the head and wounding four youngsters. The army said soldiers opened fire because they felt their lives were in danger.

In the West Bank, troops destroyed four homes two belonging to suicide bombers, one to a man who supplied explosives for an attack and a fourth to a suspected bombing mastermind. The demolitions brought to 18 the number of houses of demolished since Israel revived its controversial policy last month.