Man killed, 3 hurt by IDF fire; 2 Fatah men die in 'work accident'
One person was killed and three were seriously wounded in the Gaza Strip on Friday night when IDF troops opened fire on their vehicle at the Rafah checkpoint near the border with Egypt, Israel Radio reported.
The dead man was the driver of the vehicle, a taxi that was carrying seven passengers. The three wounded, who all sustained head injuries, were passengers in the cab.
A spokesman for the IDF said that the vehicle had failed to slow down as it approached the checkpoint and that the soldiers signaled for the car to slow down and then fired warning shots into the air. When the car did not reduce its speed after the warning shots were fired, the soldiers, fearing that the car contained a bomb, opened fire on the vehicle, which then turned around and drove away.
Two Fatah activists were killed ealier Friday evening by an explosion in the Nablus area of the West Bank, Palestinian sources said. The French news agency reported that the explosion occurred close to the village of Beit Iba, in an area under Israeli security control.
A Palestinian source said that the two were killed during an attempt to build an explosive device.
The men, both aged 21, have been named as Mohammed Salam Samani and Mohammed Ibrahim Samani.
Six Palestinians sustained light-to-moderate injuries Friday during clashes with IDF troops at the Ayosh Junction next to the West Bank city of Ramallah. The clashes occurred when dozens of Palestinians took part in a march organized by the leadership of the intifada on the way to Friday prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
When the marchers reached the junction, some began to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers and Border Police stationed there. The troops responded, using rubber-coated bullets and tear gas to clear the crowd.
Mortar falls on home in Gaza settlement
A mortar landed on a home in the Neve Dekalim settlement in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. None of the occupants of the house were injured, although the building sustained some damage.
Earlier Friday, IDF troops and Border Police troops searched Kibbutz Eyal near the West Bank city of Qalqilyah following a breach in the security fence around the kibbutz. Security sources said that two men had infiltrated the kibbutz during the night, and the IDF was concerned that they had planted an explosive device. The infiltrators apparently left the kibbutz and a search of the area found nothing. |
