At least five Palestinians were wounded in separate clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday, witnesses and hospital officials told AFP.
Three Palestinians were injured when the Israeli army opened fire on a group of demonstrators protesting at the closure of a road near the West Bank town of Hebron by Jewish settlers, witnesses said.
Clashes erupted in an Israel-controlled area in the divided city after settlers blocked the road leading from Hebron to the Palestinian village of Siir to the north, they said.
One Palestinian was hit with live ammunition and another two with rubber-coated steel bullets, according to AFP.
In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were wounded after being shot by Israeli troops at the industrial zone near the Erez checkpoint into Israel, witnesses and hospital officials said.
Palestinians said protests flared after workers at the Israeli-controlled zone in the north of the Gaza Strip were ordered to undergo searches by sniffer dogs.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that a roadside bomb exploded on the road to the Netzarim Jewish settlement.
It said that there were no reports of injuries.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is due to attend later Tuesday the funeral of a top Palestinian police officer who was killed the day before while trying to dismantle an unexploded Israeli shell, added the agency.
General Abdel as-Sabawi, 55, an explosives expert who was the right-hand man of Palestinian civil police chief Ghazi Jibali, is to be buried with full military-style honors.
Arafat is to go to Cairo after the funeral, and will have talks Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak --(Several Sources)
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