Palestinian man shot dead near Gaza

A Palestinian man has been shot dead by Israeli gunfire this evening, near the Kissufim border crossing into Israel from the …

A Palestinian man has been shot dead by Israeli gunfire this evening, near the Kissufim border crossing into Israel from the Gaza Strip according to Palestinian security and Israeli military sources.

Earlier Israeli police detained Palestinian minister Mr Ziad Abu Ziad in the annexed eastern Jerusalem, a police spokesman said.

"Mr Ziad was detained in the Ras El Amud neighbourhood because he was not authorised to return to Jerusalem," said the spokesman, who said the minister should be released within hours.

Mr Ziad took his post in the Palestinian Authority as minister with responsibility for Jerusalem after his predecessor, Mr Faisal al-Husseini, died of a heart attack last May on a trip to Kuwait.

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Israeli police previously arrested Mr Ziad on September 9th when he was banned from returning to the city.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up today at an Israeli army roadblock near the town of Jenin, killing himself and wounding a soldier, the army said.

A terrorist came up to the Salem checkpoint, north of Jenin, and blew himself up, lightly wounding an officer, an army spokeswoman said.

But Palestinians in the area denied the attack at the checkpoint which lies on the Palestinian side of the border with Israel. They said there had been an explosion about 2.5 km to the south, near the Jewish settlement of Shaked.

Israeli soldiers were reported to have shot dead a Palestinian shepherd near the West Bank city of Nablus today.

Israeli military sources said soldiers shot and killed a man in the area after spotting him planting an explosive device on a road to an army outpost.

But Palestinian witnesses said Mr Ayman Mohammed Khawaled was shot by Israeli soldiers yesterday morning as he tended his sheep close to the outpost near the village of Zawata, west of Nablus.

AFP and