Gun battles in Gaza as settlers riot

Israeli military and Palestinians exchanged gunfire from overnight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli military sources …

Israeli military and Palestinians exchanged gunfire from overnight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli military sources said today.

The two sides fired at each other for several hours by an Israeli army post near the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip. Two bombs were thrown toward the Israeli post.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli military arrested two Jewish settlers for ransacking Palestinian property in the beachside community of al-Muwassi, near the Gush Katif settlement where a Jewish settler was murdered Sunday night.

The two counted among 100 settlers who retaliated for the killing of settler Mr Rony Tzalah. The mob burned seven empty houses, 15 plastic-covered green houses, 20 beachhouses, farms, fruit trees and two cars, Palestinian witnesses said.

READ MORE

Meanwhile, Palestinian residents today found the body of a suspected collaborator with Israel on the main road outside the village of Ajja in the northern West Bank near Jenin, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

The dead man (38) was suspected of collaboration with Israel during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising from 1988 to 1993, and had fled to Israel. He returned to Ajja after Israel granted Palestinians autonomy in 1994.

AFP