Seven Palestinians were wounded Friday in clashes with Israeli troops near Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources told AFP.
Five of the seven were children, the sources said, including a 13-year-old boy who was seriously wounded.
The Palestinians were hit by live bullets after Israeli security forces opened fire with heavy machine guns and fired five shells from tanks near the Israeli-Egyptian border, the sources said.
They also said two Israeli tanks and one bulldozer had moved 50 meters (yards) into Palestinian territory near the Rafah refugee camp and opened fire.
The Israeli army said its forces opened fire after Palestinians threw hand grenades at Israeli troops.
An army spokesperson said no Israelis were injured in the clashes.
Al Jazeera satellite channel said a Hamas activist was arrested by the Israeli forces during the incursion into Rafah.
Earlier, Israeli police banned Palestinians from attending Friday prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque. Al Jazeera correspondent said, however, that the situation remained calm in the holy city. But clashes at Orient House, occupied by the Israeli forces since last Friday, were reported.
Haaretz reported that shots were fired early Friday morning at an Israeli army jeep near Qalqilya, damaging the jeep but not causing any injuries. A roadside bomb was set off overnight Thursday close to an army vehicle on the Halhoul bypass road near Hebron in the West Bank and shots were fired at an Israeli bus in the same area. Shots were also fired at Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip, near the Neve Dekalim industrial zone and the settlement of Netzarim. No injuries were reported in both incidents, according to the daily.
Meanwhile, the Israeli northern district police commander, Major General Ya'akov Borovski, said Friday that security forces continued to receive warnings of “a terrorist attack” planned for northern Israel, according to Haaretz.
Warnings of a major attack were received Thursday, when police roadblocks were set up throughout the north in an attempt to prevent possible attacks.
As well as the alerts from intelligence sources about a West Bank cell, security sources told the paper that Hamas and Islamic Jihad cells in the Gaza Strip were planning suicide attacks for inside Israel. Citing army sources, Haaretz said that the fence circling the strip and the operational deployment of the army around the area are making such efforts difficult, but the risk from the Gaza Strip is considered serious, particularly because terrorist cells from that area tend to use larger, more powerful bombs.
The Israeli troops maintained a tight siege Friday on the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Qalqilya and Bethlehem. The towns have been under closure since earlier this week as a result of alerts of a possible attack – Albawaba.com
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