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Palestinian shot dead near Gaza settlement -medics

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 14:33 CDT

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man on Tuesday and wounded three others as a crowd tried to force its way into a demolished Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, medics said.

The 24-year-old from the southern town of Khan Younis was the first Palestinian killed in a confrontation with Israeli troops in Gaza since Israel evacuated all 21 settlements there last month.

Several hours after the confrontation Palestinian militants fired two rockets at the southern Israeli collective farm of Yad Mordechai, Israeli media reports said.

There were no reported casualties or damage, nor any immediate claims of responsibility for the rockets.

Witnesses said Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police tried to disperse more than 100 Palestinians who had gathered outside Neve Dekalim, one of the evacuated settlements in Gaza, shaking the wire fence and cutting it.

Israeli troops shot at several who planted a green banner of the Hamas militant group and the Palestinian national flag, witnesses said.

The Israeli army said its troops had opened fire at the settlement site near Khan Younis after Palestinian security forces "were unable to contain" a large group of rioters who had broken through a security fence.

"Soldiers fired from posts securing the area and fired again after the Palestinian crowd continued to advance further," and some climbed onto an Israeli army vehicle, an army statement said.

Two militant groups threatened to avenge the killing.

"This crime will not go unpunished," read a statement from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

"The Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for the consequences of the crime," Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, a group bent on Israel's destruction, told Reuters.

The confrontation underscored fears that Palestinian security forces could have trouble securing areas vacated by Israel once it completes a planned pullout from Gaza expected later this month.

Source: REUTERS

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