Last update - 00:00 13/12/2006
IDF kills Gaza militant for first time since cease-fire
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman near the Gaza Strip boundary on Wednesday, witnesses and military officials said, the first such death since a truce was declared in the territory on November 26.
Medical officials identified the man, who was shot dead opposite the boundary fence from the Israeli town of Nahal Oz, as a member of Palestinian Authority Chairman's Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
"He approached the fence, armed with a rifle and grenades, so our troops opened fire," an IDF spokesman said, adding that the soldiers in question were outside Gaza.
Palestinian security officials, however, said the militant, 22, was in no-man's land along the fence when he was killed.
Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the cease-fire in what they described as a bid to restart peace efforts. But Palestinian militants in Gaza fired around 20 rockets into Israel during the truce, causing no casualties.
Also Wednesday evening, off the coast of Gaza's border with Egypt - an area subject to an Israeli naval blockade - an Israel naval vessel opened fire at a Palestinian boat, setting it on fire. Two of the men on board were wounded, according to Palestinian emergency services. Their identity was not immediately known.
The army confirmed that its a navy patrol boat had opened fire on the vessel.
Security guard wounded in West Bank stabbing
An Israeli security guard was seriously wounded earlier Wednesday when a Palestinian stabbed him in the neck and in the chest at the Qalandiyah checkpoint north of Jerusalem.
The guard, who works for a private company employed by the Public Security Ministry, was transferred in serious condition to the Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem.
The guard was stabbed by a Palestinian who emerged from a long line of cars at the checkpoint. The soldier fired a warning shot from his pistol as soon as he was stabbed, apparently to call for help, and then collapsed to the ground.
IDF soldiers chased after three Palestinians, arresting one and releasing him soon after for lack of evidence. The perpetrator apparently fled the scene of the crime.
Last year, IDF soldier Nir Kahana, 20, died of wounds incurred when stabbed by an Al-Aqsa militant at Qalandiyah.
Also Wednesday, a 3-year-old Israeli boy sustained light facial wounds from rocks hurled at the car in which he war riding near the Palestinian West Bank village of Tukua, south of Bethlehem.