Three Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were injured in outbreaks of shooting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sunday, reports said.
The soldiers were slightly wounded when their armored vehicle came under fire from Palestinians near the village of Surda, north of the West Bank town of Ramallah, Haaretz newspaper reported, citing the army.
A Palestinian passerby was also wounded in the leg during the incident, Palestinian hospital sources told AFP.
Palestinian security officials said the Israeli troops had opened fire on Palestinians near Surda, but added that it was not clear how many people had been injured because Israeli forces had blocked the road.
Two Palestinian farmers were wounded by Israeli fire near Muntar crossing point on the frontier between of the Gaza Strip and Israel, hospital sources told AFP.
Palestinian sources said Israeli forces opened fire without provocation, but the army said its troops were responding to an attack on soldiers traveling between Muntar and the flashpoint Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
"The soldiers responded only toward the source of the fire," an army spokeswoman said.
Palestinian sources reported Sunday that 10 residents of the West Bank village of Salfit, in the Nablus area, sustained medium to serious injuries as a result of Israeli fire on the southern section of the village on Saturday night.
The Palestinians told Haaretz newspaper that Israeli tanks fired a total of 12 shells at the village, in the process destroying two outposts of the Palestinian Authority's military intelligence wing and an outpost Force 17 presidential guard.
The Israeli army claimed that “the [army] fire was in response to Palestinian gunfire on the settlement of Ariel over the weekend,” according to Haaretz – Albawaba.com
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