Israel Defense Forces troops on Saturday night shot dead an armed Palestinian in the Old City of Nablus.

An IDF spokeswoman said troops shot at a gunman armed with an assault rifle and reported hitting him.

Palestinian security officials said that the dead man was a shopkeeper who was killed and his brother wounded during an apparent attempt to shoot two gunmen in Nablus.

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The soldiers, disguised as Palestinians, opened fire from a building overlooking a meat and vegetable shop in the center of the town of Nablus when the two militants appeared, but hit the two civilians instead, the officials said.

In a separate incident, IDF troops shot and wounded an armed Palestinian in a refugee camp near Nablus on Saturday night.

Hours earlier, witnesses said IDF troops blew up several cement barriers that militants had placed in Nablus to prevent military vehicles from driving through the streets.

Nihad Masri, the acting mayor of Nablus, said a few people sustained minor injuries from the blasts in the old city.

Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouthi said the IDF action in blowing up the barriers was "a new crime coming in the context of Israeli escalation against the Palestinian Authority and people."

The IDF spokeswoman said troops had found three explosives laboratories in Nablus this year along with numerous explosive belts being prepared for suicide bombers.

"It is the capital of terrorism in the West Bank. That is why it is important for the soldiers to go in there and prevent terrorists from leaving there [to attack Israel]," she said.

Two wounded by IDF fire in Gaza
Earlier Saturday, Israel Defense Forces troops wounded two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip near the border fence with Israel, local residents and medical workers said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said soldiers fired at two Palestinians approaching the fence after they ignored shouted orders to stop and warning shots. The troops, she said, reported one of the men was hit by the gunfire.

Medical workers reported that two Palestinians were wounded, hours after they had initially reported that the two men were killed.

The men were identified as workers at a garbage dump near the Israeli-built frontier fence.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent weeks with rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli strikes against militants.

On Friday, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian youths in
the northern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel. An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had shot at suspicious figures trying to plant an object close to the barrier.

The Israeli military has declared areas near the border
fence, where militants have often tried to plant explosives, no-go zones for Palestinians.

Israeli troops and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.