Israeli troops kill two Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians in separate confrontations in the Gaza Strip today.

Troops killed a man who threw two grenades at Israeli border police at the heavily guarded Erez crossing point between the strip and Israel. He was also carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a revolver.

Earlier, Israeli soldiers had shot dead a Palestinian trying to enter Gaza’s Dugit Jewish settlement after midnight, the army said.

Palestinian doctors at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital said the man’s body was riddled with 12 bullets and that the lower half of his body appeared to have been crushed by a vehicle.

The violence came amid a week-long Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip against the Islamic militants of Hamas. The extremist group had claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on an Israeli tank that killed four soldiers on Saturday.