Israeli army kills 3 Palestinians on Gaza border

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot dead three
Palestinians near the Israel-Gaza border on Monday, Palestinian
medics said, in an incident that could cloud a planned summit
between Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.

The Israeli army said troops had spotted three Palestinians
crawling near the Gaza border fence, one carrying a bag.
Suspecting it contained explosives, the soldiers shot at the
Palestinians after they failed to heed calls to stop.

It was unclear whether the men were militants. Palestinians
later brought their bodies to a Gaza hospital and medics said
that no weapons were found on them.

The shooting marked the first killings of what the army
said were would-be infiltrators since Israel completed its
pullout from Gaza on September 12 after 38 years of military
rule.

Elsewhere in Gaza, two militants and a Palestinian security
officer were wounded in a gunfight in Gaza City in the latest
of the internecine Palestinian violence that has increased in
Gaza since Israel’s pullout.

Witnesses said several bodyguards of a Palestinian security
official had tried to stop a car carrying militants from the
Popular Resistance Committees. When they refused to pull over,
the men opened fire at the gunmen.

One militant was arrested, a security source said.

Rival Palestinian militant groups denounced on Saturday
inter-factional violence that has undermined calls by President
Mahmoud Abbas for law and order in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.

Abbas had urged militant groups, which have spearheaded the
anti-Israeli violence over the past five years, to end what he
calls armed chaos and stop carrying weapons in public. Israel
and Washington say he should disarm them to promote peace.

Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abbas met
on Sunday to prepare for a planned summit this week,
tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. No breakthroughs are
expected at the meeting, which both leaders have said could be
postponed.

Both sides want to improve their standing in Washington’s
eyes ahead of Abbas’s White House talks with U.S. President
George W. Bush scheduled for October 20. The United States
hopes the pullout will serve as a catalyst for renewed peace
efforts.

Abbas and Sharon are each expected to use the summit, their
first since June, to demand that the other carry out
commitments agreed at a cease-fire conference in February.

Abbas will press Israel to free more Palestinian prisoners
and hand over security control of more West Bank cities, which
could improve his standing with the Palestinians. Sharon will
push Abbas to disarm militant groups dedicated to Israel’s
destruction.

(Writing by Corinne Heller in Jerusalem)