A member of the Palestinian Resistance Hamas movement was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Hebron on Wednesday, hospital officials and residents said.
He was the fifth Palestinian to be killed on the day.
Abbas Osman Awidi, 26, was killed as he was standing outside his shop near an Israeli army checkpoint in the divided city, they said.
In southern Gaza Strip, four members of the Palestinians National Security forces were shot dead and dozens more wounded in bloody confrontations with the Israeli army, according to hospital sources.
They were killed by Israeli artillery and tanks, which entered a Palestinian-controlled zone near the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian police and security services fired back at the Israelis, who penetrated 100 meters (yards) inside a zone which is under full control of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, witnesses said.
The Israeli troops destroyed three houses and Palestinian police positions outside Khan Yunis with bulldozers, witnesses said. The tanks withdrew under Palestinian fire, but the artillery continued shooting.
The Israeli assault followed an automatic weapon attack by Palestinians the day before at the nearby Jewish settlement of Morag, which injured two Israelis travelling in a car.
The Israeli army also reported that shots were fired Wednesday at a schoolbus travelling between the Neve Dekalim and Morag settlements, followed by an exchange of fire between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers."
"These attacks show that the Palestinians have opted for blind terror and want to kill as many Jews as possible, even women and children," said army spokesman Yarden Vatikay -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
