Palestinian, 14, killed by IDF fire; Gaza shelling slowing

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Ra'ab al Masri, was killed by Israel Defense Forces fire Monday near the Gush Katif intersection in the Gaza Strip.

Military sources said a convoy of Palestinian vehicles broke through an army roadblock meant to prevent Palestinians from traveling between the town of Khan Yunis and Gaza City. The sources said soldiers standing at the roadblock fired warning shots at an open field and did not notice any casualties.

The convoy had been waiting at the roadblock for many hours, and eventually decided to cross it by force. The youth was in one of the cars of the convoy that was on its way from Khan Yunis to Gaza City.

The roadblock was set up as part of the IDF's division of the Gaza Strip into three separate parts following heavy shelling by Palestinian militants since Thursday.

Border Police sappers defused two large explosives in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Monday.

By Monday evening a significant drop in the intensity of shelling of Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip by Palestinians was noted, and western Negev communities did not suffer any hits. The relative calm follows more than 100 shells and rockets fired in recent days at Gaza settlements, IDF installations, and at Sderot.

IDF forces remain on high alert ahead of a possible large-scale incursion into Palestinian-contorlled territory in the Strip.

13 mortar shells hit IDF outposts in Gush Katif and the Rafah area on Monday, marking the significant drop in shelling incidents.

An anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli Defense Forces outpost in the Gush Katif settlement of Neveh Dekalim. Soldiers returned fire. There were no casualties in the incident.

An IDF force caught at a checkpoint outside the West Bank town of Nablus a Palestinian carrying 200 rounds of automatic ammunition. The man was taken for questioning.

The IDF considers the positive change to be related to understandings reached Sunday evening between the Hamas and Islamic Jihad military gruops and an Egyptian delegation. Other possible reasons are some efforts by the Palestinian Authority to stop the shelling, as well as Israel's threat to hold a large-scale military incursion ahead of the disengagement.

	Islamic Jihad supporters raise their hands in a protest calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails on Monday.