One Palestinian was killed yesterday evening and at least 10 others were injured when a gunman attacked a group of Palestinian civilians waiting for permission to cross into Israel near the Erez Crossing.

Responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the Popular Resistance Committees, a grassroots paramilitary organization. It is still unclear what the aim was.

	Advertisement

The incident occurred when Palestinians waiting in an area of the crossing known as the "sleeve" came under fire from automatic weapons and grenades. The Palestinians had been asking to cross into Israel and seek refuge in the West Bank.

An initial investigation by the commander of the northern brigade of the Gaza Division, Colonel Menachem Katz, concluded that Israeli troops were not responsible for the shooting incident.

Earlier, Palestinian sources said the Palestinian civilians were hit by IDF bullets.

According to the investigation, an IDF position in the area also came under fire, several hundred meters from where the Palestinian civilians were waiting. No IDF troops were injured.

IDF soldiers fired a limited number of rounds against the assailants.

Palestinian sources said a gunman on a bicycle came close to the area where the civilians were waiting and threw a grenade and fired several bursts at the people.

A spokesman for Southern Command said that Israel had no connection to the incident and that it was an internal Palestinian matter.

"It is possible that it was an attempt to draw us into the internal fighting in the Gaza Strip. We do not want this and we are not taking any part in it," an army source said.

A short while after the incident the Magen David Adom director-general, Eli Bin, raised the level of readiness at Erez to the highest rung.

Bin said seven ambulances reached the crossing, most of them bullet proof, to offer medical assistance to the injured.

He said that as a result of the decisions by the IDF, the crossing was closed, and they could not aid the victims.

The dead Palestinian is Jihad al-Madhoun, a relative of Samih al-Madhoun, a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, who was lynched by Hamas several days ago.

Since Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the rival Fatah movement last week, the Erez Crossing has been crowded with Gazans trying to get away. Israel has let only a few through, citing its own security concerns.

Masked Hamas gunmen have erected a roadblock outside the terminal to keep waves of people from rushing to the border, and to look for Fatah officials trying to escape.

On several occasions, gunmen, some from Hamas and others from warring clans, have run into the tunnel, which leads to the border terminal, and fired at those waiting, only to be driven off by Israeli fire and tear gas, witnesses said.

The situation in Gaza yesterday was fairly calm, even though Hamas militants continued their search for weapons and Fatah members.

Trying to assert its authority, the Hamas Executive Force uncovered a greenhouse where marijuana was grown.

Hamas also threatened to raid the compound of the Durmush clan to gain the release of the kidnapped BBC journalist, Alan Johnston.