Israeli Helicopters Bomb Positions of Force 17 in Gaza StripIsraeli helicopter gunships Sunday afternoon fired two air-to-surface missiles at military positions of the Force 17, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's personal guard, in southern Gaza Strip.An Israeli army spokeswoman said that the attack was in response to mortar shellings by Palestinian militants on the Jewish settlements in the area earlier in the day, which lightly wounded an Israeli. Palestinian sources said that at least one Palestinian was wounded in the air strike and the building was heavily damaged. Also on Sunday afternoon, Israel's armored units fired two shells at a Palestinian police post in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip, wounding three Palestinian policemen. The Israeli army spokeswoman said then that the attack was also in response to the Palestinian mortar shellings. She charged that the Palestinian militants had used the police post "as a base for firing mortars at the Jewish settlements nearby." Earlier Sunday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in separate shooting incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to Israel Radio reports. A 38-year-old Palestinian was killed and two others injured by Israeli fire when they tried to go into the West Bank city of Nablus. In another incident, a 14-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers near the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Three other Palestinians were wounded. Bloody clashes have been raging between Israel and the Palestinians since last September, leaving nearly 700 people dead, most of them Palestinians. |
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