A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli soldiers during a gunfight Sunday and two Jewish settlers were injured in separate incidents in the West Bank, officials told AFP. A number of Palestinians were also injured in confrontations with Israeli troops.
According to the agency, the violence came as US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the West Bank and Jerusalem and urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to put an end to five months of bloodletting.
Mohammed al-Jilad, 45, was shot in the head while driving his car in the western part of Tulkarem and was not involved in a gunfight between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians, said the agency, citing witnesses and hospital officials.
Earlier, an Israeli was shot and seriously injured by Palestinians as he drove near the Jewish settlement of Ateret north of Ramallah in the West Bank, reported Haaretz newspaper in its internet edition.
The man, whose identity was not immediately released, was hit in the head and his condition was listed as "very serious," a military spokesman was quoted as telling Israel Radio.
An anonymous caller to AFP said the attack was the work of a group calling itself the "Thabet Thabet unit" of Arafat's Fatah faction.
Thabet Thabet was a local Fateh official who headed the Palestinian health ministry and was shot dead by the Israeli army in Tulkarem on December 31, in one of a series of of "state executions" by Israel of suspected militants.
Quoting a military source, the agency also reported that a settler woman was injured in the legs and taken to a hospital after being shot as she drove near the Ofra settlement, said. The army listed her condition as "good."
According to Haaretz , a grenade was thrown Sunday afternoon at an Israeli army outpost next to Rafah, on the Israeli-Egyptian border. The grenade exploded outside the post, but no injuries were reported.
A 17-year-old Palestinian was moderately wounded during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli army soldiers in Hebron, Army Radio reported.
A Palestinian was moderately wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in Shweike, near Tulkarem in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported, quoted by the paper.
Also Sunday, added AFP, a seven-year-old Palestinian boy was hospitalized after Israeli soldiers fired tear-gas bombs on a group of Palestinians in the flashpoint village of al-Khader near Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the Israeli army discovered a bomb attached to a human-sized doll in the Gaza Strip.
The device was placed on the border fence north of the Karni crossing-point at the northern end of Gaza.
The device was safely detonated, said the paper, adding that the army was still looking for other explosive devices.
On Sunday also, an Israeli soldier was sentenced Sunday to 49 days in jail for a shooting at a Palestinian youth who died later from his wounds, said another reported The Post.
The soldier reportedly fired at the legs of Issa Ibrahim al-Amur near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, where a total ban on Palestinian movement was forced by the Israeli army, a military spokesman told the paper.
"The soldier violated open-fire regulations since al-Amur did not present a threat to Israeli soldiers or civilians," the spokesman said.
The paper added that the soldier was sentenced by his commanding officer, and not by a military court.
In a related development, the paper said that a Jewish settler was arrested Saturday in the West Bank city of Nablus by Palestinian Authority security forces.
The paper identified the settler as David Marcea, a 50-year-old doctor.
It quoted Israel Radio as saying that Marcea was detained on suspicion of being involved in the assassination of Hamas activist Mahmoud Madani.
Reports said that the PA has arrested several Palestinians suspected of helping Israel track and kill Madani in the Balata refugee camp last Monday – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
