Israeli soldiers kill two Palestinians

Israeli troops shot and killed two suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank today, a day after Palestinians in Gaza buried seven people killed in a deadly air attack.

The Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses offered conflicting versions of the strike in Gaza as thousands of mourners called for revenge for the deaths of those killed in the attack.

Palestinians said that the seven dead, including an 11-year-old boy, were all civilians killed by an Israeli missile fired into a crowd at the Nusseirat refugee camp the night before.

The army said militants and some civilians had been struck and released a video indicating there was no one on the street near the vehicle targeted in the attack.

The air strikes revived debate inside Israel over targeted killings in populated areas, and the Palestinian prime minister, in a rare criticism of Washington, complained that the United States was doing nothing to stop what he said are Israel’s “ugly crimes.”

Brig Gen Ruth Yaron, the army spokeswoman, acknowledged there were civilian casualties, but added: “There is no doubt that the majority of those killed were terrorists.”

In the West Bank the army shot dead two Palestinian militants during pre dawn arrest raids today, one in Hebron and one in Qalqiliya, the army said.

In both cases the army said the men were shot after trying to flee. Troops arrested 18 other Palestinians in the raids.

Also in Hebron, troops destroyed the house of a Palestinian suspected of sending suicide bombers into Israel, Israeli security officials said.