The Israeli army said Wednesday afternoon that troops had killed a Palestinian and wounded another near the sites from where home-made rockets were launched. The army said the two were Palestinian activists, who had come to collect the rocket launchers.
In a related development, a 15-year-old Palestinian child named Hanan Mohammed Oda on Wednesday succumbed to serious wounds suffered when Israeli undercover soldiers killed her father and brother early this month.
The young girl was transferred to an Israeli hospital due to the seriousness of her condition where she was declared dead. Hanan was hit with eight bullets in various parts of her small body when Israeli soldiers killed her father and her brother Ismail, both Fatah members. Her sister Azhar was hit with three bullets and was still under treatment.
Meanwhile, Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya has rejected "conditions" imposed by the so-called Middle East quartet for resuming direct financial aid to the Palestinian administration. "Conditions are being imposed on the Palestinian people. They want us to condemn the resistance and that we recognize agreements (with Israel)," he said Wednesday, according to AFP.
"We are sticking by the national reconciliation document which does not recognise the legality of the occupation and reaffirms the legality of the resistance" that will "continue," Haniya added.
The international community has demanded Haniya's governing movement Hamas formally recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by past peace agreements. "We do not want to damage the interests of the Palestinian people," added Haniya.
