Israeli troops shot dead five Palestinian policemen in the West Bank town of Beitunia near Ramallah early today, Palestinian hospital sources said.
An ambulance officer, who declined to be named, said his crew found the bodies of five men from the Palestinian National Forces shot dead by heavy machinegun fire and dumped in a hole in the ground near a checkpoint outside Beitunia, west of Ramallah. Hospital officials confirmed they received the bodies of five men.
The Israeli army said it had no knowledge of the killings as described by the ambulance officer. But a spokeswoman said soldiers on "operational activity" near Beitunia opened fire on "suspicious figures who were where they were not supposed to be . . . It was probably them," she said. She added the soldiers had not fired machineguns.
The deaths raised to at least 418 Palestinians, 79 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs the total killed since a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation erupted in September after peace talks stalled.
Palestinian security officials were unavailable for comment. But Ramallah-area governor, Mr Mustafa Liftawi, accused the Israeli army of killing the men while some of them slept and others guarded a Palestinian checkpoint. He did not explain how he knew the circumstances of their deaths. "This is a terror act ordered by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon himself," Mr Liftawi said. "We call on the United States and the world community to investigate these assassinations," he said.
David Horovitz adds:
Israeli leaders yesterday defended their army's "preemptive" killings of alleged orchestrators of intifada violence, following a helicopter missile attack in the West Bank in which a Palestinian militant and a policeman were killed.
But Palestinian officials, who are now being given a hearing by the Bush administration, attacked the killings as "state-sponsored terrorism".
The two men killed on Saturday in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, were Mr Moutasem Sabaa (26), a Fatah activist and gunman, and Mr Ala'a Jaloudi, a policeman who happened to be standing nearby. It is believed Israel was also targeting Mr Abdel Karim Awais, local leader of the armed Tanzim militia, who escaped.
Israeli helicopter gunships rocketed armoured vehicles at a security compound near Mr Yasser Arafat's Gaza headquarters in a bombardment of Palestinian security targets early today.