Israeli forces shot dead a member of an armed commando infiltrating the country today, hours after killing two Palestinians in a growing crackdown on militants in the wake of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Israeli soldiers patrolling near the borders with Jordan and Syria killed an unidentified man and captured another after they had infiltrated the country, Israeli military sources said.
The gunmen opened fire on a patrol in the Hamat Gader area, a spring beside the Yarmuk river marking the border with Jordan and some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Syria, the sources added.
Earlier, the Israeli army shot dead an 18-year-old civilian in the northern West Bank village of Saida, Palestinian witnesses said. He was said to be standing on a roof near a house soldiers were demolishing when one of them opened fire on him.
But an army spokesman said Israeli forces had responded to Palestinian fire and that the youth had been armed.
Another Palestinian was killed during an exchange of fire with soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, a few hundred meters (yards) from the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian witnesses said.
Following a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv Sunday that killed 22 people, Israel further tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement. It confined senior officials to their cities and barred all other Palestinians under 35 from leaving the territories.
