| Three die at Gaza crossing point
Security is tight at the Erez border crossing
Three Palestinians have been killed and 14 injured at the main crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Two of the dead were policemen, but there are conflicting accounts as to whether they were killed in an explosion or by Israeli army fire.
Palestinian witnesses say that two jeeps drove up to the crossing from the Palestinian side.
One exploded near an entrance to the Erez industrial zone, the other near a Palestinian security post.
The Israeli army says the first jeep, disguised to look like an Israeli military vehicle, approached one of their positions and a gunman got out and started shooting.
The Israelis say their troops returned fire and killed him.
An Israeli army spokeswoman says that, at about the same time, there was an explosion in a jeep near the Palestinian post - a suicide bomb which apparently went off prematurely.
The Israelis say this caused the other Palestinian deaths, but reports from the scene suggest that the dead men may have been hit by Israeli army fire.
A taxi driver at the scene, Ali al-Basyouni, said: "The sound of the explosion was huge and powerful, followed by intense machine gun fire from the Israeli army outpost."
Militants admit attack
The militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad say they carried out the attack, calling it a joint "self-sacrifice operation" in a message posted on the Hamas website.
Earlier on Saturday, a Palestinian policeman was shot dead by an Israeli patrol in the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
The Palestinians say he was returning home unarmed, whereas the Israeli army said one of its patrols had opened fire on a group of men, one of whom was carrying a pistol.
Israel has tightened security along its borders with Gaza and the West Bank during the Purim festival, which ends on Monday.
The Erez industrial zone is one of the few places in Gaza where there is co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians,
About 6,000 Palestinians work in factories there producing plastics, textiles, iron, electronics.
It has recently been the target of attacks by Palestinian militant groups.
The most recent was on 26 Feb, when two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier there before being shot dead.
Injured
On Friday, a Palestinian teenager was seriously wounded in the head by Israeli occupation army gunfire near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian medics and security sources said.
Abd Allah al-Awna, 13, was hit when Israeli soldiers opened fire at a group of stone-throwers, prostesting an army incursion in the village of Jabaa, near Jenin.
An Israeli military official told AFP "after having been attacked by about 30 Palestinian protesters who were throwing rocks at them, the soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the aggressors."
BBC- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3538607.stm
Haaretz Daily - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/401356.html
Al'Jazeera - http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exe...70D998D4D93.htm | |
