A member of the Palestinian Fateh movement was shot dead by Israeli troops overnight near the West Bank village of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources told AFP Sunday.
Mahmoud Yusef Moghrabi, 25, was killed on a bypass road used by Jewish settlers to the west of Beit Jala, they said, without giving further details about how he died.
The Bethlehem branch of Fateh issued a statement accusing Israel of assassinating one of its members, and warned that Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territories would be targeted, according to the agency.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper, quoting Israeli public radio, said that soldiers had responded to gunshots fired by two Palestinians who were planting a roadside bomb in the area.
AFP added that the Israeli army said a statement would be issued later on the incident.
According to the report, the soldiers killed a Palestinian attempting to set an explosive charge in the ‘Tunnel Road’ connecting Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish settlements to the south.
It added that another Palestinian with the man managed to escape and fled into neighboring Palestinian Authority held territory.
The road is a main traffic artery for the area, and is used by thousands of Israelis and Palestinians daily.
The road comprising two tunnels and a land bridge passes under and over Palestinian territory, the Jerusalem Post said.
In another incident, the paper quoted the army radio as saying that an Israeli woman driver was wounded overnight by Palestinian gunfire.
The driver's vehicle was hit as she drove near the settlement of Halamish north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Her wounds were described as light, said the report - (Several Sources)
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