A seven-year-old boy and a teenager have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers, in renewed incursions into Palestinian refugee camps.
Mussa al-Talalqa was shot while playing outside his home in a village near the Erez crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Khaled Najem (19) was shot in a gunfight in Jenin as Israeli forces continued their hunt for suspected militants in two West Bank refugee camps. He was the 15th victim of the incursions this week. At least 31 Palestinians were also wounded in the clashes, hospital sources said.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed operations were going on at the refugee camp in Jenin for the second day running.
"The refugee camp is a central location for terrorist members who have carried out attacks causing the murders of dozens of innocents Israelis," the spokesman said.
Seven tanks had moved into the camp and a helicopter gunship was firing into the camp from overhead, Palestinian witnesses said earlier. They said tanks were moving down the main street and heading towards the camp, adding that the army had urged militants to surrender through loud-speakers.
The latest move follows operations by Israel yesterday in the camp at Jenin and one at Balata, near the West Bank town of Nablus, in which 13 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier died.
Jenin has been dubbed the "city of martyrs" because of the number of people from there who have carried out suicide attacks over the course of the Palestinian intifada.
The Israeli army's operation in the Balata refugee camp, known as a bastion for militants of the increasingly active Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was also still under way this morning. According to Palestinian hospital sources, 135 Palestinians were injured in Balata in yesterday's clashes.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon's spokesman said the army had so far found explosives and mines, but no home-made Katyusha-style rockets, and had not captured any wanted militants in the raids.
AFP