A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed by Israeli forces during an army incursion into a village in the central Gaza Strip today.
Yussef Abou Madi, 14, was shot when firing erupted as Israelitroops pulled out of Al-Msaddar, north of the Deir al-Balah refugeecamp, after a six-hour operation to arrest militants.
Earlier in the raid, a memberof the armed wing of Hamas - 26-year-old Marwan Abu Jayab was killedafter being hit by several bullets. Palestinian officials initiallythought he was a civilian but the armed wing of the radical Islamicgroup Hamas said he was one of their members.
An Israeli army spokesman said the soldiers had shot at the man,who had fired an anti-tank rocket.
Hamas said he had hit the tank before being killed. The armysaid it suffered no casualties but did not comment on possibledamage to its tank.
Palestinian officials said a total of 15 people were injured and15 arrested in the incursion.
The latest death brings to 3,130 the number of people killedsince the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted inSeptember 2000, including 2,353 Palestinians and 719 Israelis.
An army spokesman confirmed there was an operation under way inthe area overnight to hunt down "terrorists who often fire rocketsat the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, or who attack Israelis withgrenades or bombs from this sector".
An Israeli military source also claimed that five Palestinians fromthe radical Islamic group Hamas were arrested in the West Bank townsof Qalqilya and Hebron.
Late Saturday, an armed Palestinian was shot dead by Israeliforces as he tried to break into the Jewish settlement of KiryatArba on the edge of Hebron, a flashpoint city where some 600settlers live in an enclave surrounded by 120,000 Palestinians.
Earlier in the day, two foreign peace activists, and Americanand a Dane, were wounded in clashes between Palestinianstone-throwers and Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank cityof Jenin, Palestinian medical sources said.
American Barry Avery, 24, suffered a serious gunshot wound tothe face, while Lasse Schmidt, 35, of Denmark was wounded in the legby shrapnel.
Witnesses told journalists "an Israeli tank opened fired in the eveningin the direction of a group of five pacifists in the street" amidthe clashes.
A column of Israeli armour had thrust into the centre of thecity and its adjacent refugee camp on Friday and imposed a curfew.
AFP