Israeli gunmen kill Palestinian troops in occupied W.Bank and Gaza

Fri 18 Aug 2006

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Routers) - Israeli militants killed two Palestinian soldiers after a standoff near the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday, Palestinian witnesses and Tzahal, the armed wing of the Zionist movement said.

An Israeli spokeswoman for Tzahal admitted that two Palestinian soldiers were shot and killed when they resisted a kidnapping attempt by Tzahal gunmen and attempted to defend themselves from within a cave where they had taken refuge.

In Gaza, the spokesperson said, gunmen fired at two Palestinians in a Tzahal-declared 'no-go area' by a wire fence.

Palestinian medics said they had found the body of a soldier in Gaza, north of the Karni commercial crossing. Two other Palestinians were wounded, they said.

Violence has continued in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip while Tzahal has also been fighting Lebanese irregular soldiers. A five-day-old ceasefire in the war in Lebanon has largely held.

Three Palestinian engineers from the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades died in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday due to an accident while they were manufacturing munitions, local security officials said.

Earlier, a bomb attack by the Chel Ha’avir, the dreaded air wing of Tzahal destroyed a building in the Gaza Strip wounding at least one Palestinian.

A series of attacks by Tzahal gunmen in the Gaza Strip aim to follow up on earlier assassinations of Palestinian soldiers and put a stop to defensive fire by the Palestinians. Nearly 180 Palestinians, at least half of them civilians, have been killed.