Last update - 00:00 06/12/2006
Two Palestinians wounded by IDF in separate Gaza incidents
By Reuters
Israel Defense Forces troops wounded two Palestinians on Wednesday as the men approached the Gaza-Israel border, the army said, raising concerns about the future of a shaky truce between the two sides.
Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket landed Wednesday afternoon in an open field in the western Negev. There were no injuries or damages reported.
This was the 14th rocket to have been fired at Israel since a cease-fire began last week.
A militant from a small offshoot of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, said Wednesday morning that the group intends to renew the rocket firing from the Gaza Strip to Israel.
"Because of the repetitive Israeli violations of the cease-fire, we declare that this cease fire does not pertain to us anymore, and we will continue to fire rockets to the Israeli settlements, in response to the Israeli crimes against our people," he wrote in the group's announcement.
However, a short time after his announcement, sources within Fatah denied plans to violate the truce.
Earlierer Wednesday, two Palestinians were wounded by IDF fire in the Gaza Strip.
In one of the incidents, two men approached the border fence, the army said. One of them stood on a post and surveyed the area, while another appeared to be laying a mine near the border, it said. Nearby troops called on them to leave and fired warning shots in the air, driving the men off.
A few minutes later, the men returned with others, and the soldiers again fired in the air, but when one of the men continued working on the ground, the troops shot him, the army said.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man approached the Erez crossing into Israel and ignored soldiers' warnings, so the troops shot him in the lower body, the army said.
Palestinian health officials said two civilians were wounded in the legs by army fire in northern Gaza.
The truce in Gaza took hold more than a week ago, ending five months of
violence. The cease-fire has been maintained despite sporadic rocket attacks and shootings along the border.