Israelis kill Palestinian in Gaza Strip

Israeli troops today pulled out of a Gaza Strip town after shooting dead a Palestinian and demolishing the homes of three Islamic militants killed in attacks on Israelis dating back to 1996.

Last night, around 30 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles backed by two Apache helicopters moved into the town of Beit Lahiya, three miles north of Gaza City, firing machine guns and tank shells that knocked out the town’s power transformer, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

Witnesses said there were fierce exchanges of fire between Palestinians and Israeli troops during the three-hour incursion, but they said the dead man was an innocent bystander, watching events from the balcony of his home.

Israeli security sources said its forces demolished the homes of three Islamic militants, among them Hisham Dab, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber who killed 20 people in a March 1996 attack in Tel Aviv.

The sources said the six-year lapse between the bombing and the response was due to operational reasons.

They said the other two homes belonged to the families of Ahmed Hamuda, a Hamas gunman who killed three Israeli soldiers in a June attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and to Jihad Masri, also of Hamas, killed during an attack on a settlement in December last year.

Also yesterday, a 16-year-old boy was killed and another boy seriously injured when they were shot by Israeli soldiers as they were walking near an army outpost at the Karni Crossing, east of Gaza City.

A 16-year-old was hit by a bullet in his abdomen, and another in his leg, hospital officials said. A second boy was hit with a bullet in his back and was in moderate condition, they said.

Military sources said soldiers fired warning shots in the air at the teenagers when they neared a border fence, but thought no-one was injured. They said they started investigating the incident after learning that someone had been killed.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops arrested 55 Palestinians suspected of militant activity over the past two weeks, including five senior leaders. Eight were planning to carry out suicide bombings, the army said.

Among the leaders arrested was Majid Masri, 28, head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Rafidia neighbourhood of the West Bank town of Nablus, who was held on Friday.

Masri, who also used the name Abu Mojahed, was also a spokesman in the West Bank for the group, which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

The UN, meanwhile, formally demanded Israel thoroughly investigate the death of a British UN official by Israeli soldiers and punish those responsible.

Iain Hook, a project manager in UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, was fatally shot on November 22 during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp.

Israel has admitted its soldiers killed Mr Hook, but said they fired on the walled UN compound because Palestinian gunmen were firing at them from inside, and because they thought Mr Hook was carrying a gun.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday conveying his “outrage” at the death, and saying he expected Israel “to carry out a rigorous investigation of the incident, share its results with the United Nations, and hold accountable those responsible”, said a UN spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq.