A deaf mute Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip today and an Israeli woman killed by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
Mr Samir Abu Halib, 37, was walking near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel at al-Qarara, close to the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc, when he was hit by six bullets, two of them in the stomach, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers had ordered him to stop when he approached their position, fired shots in the air then aimed at his legs.
"We treated his wounds and handed him over to the Palestinians, and he probably died later because of inadequate care," the spokesman said.
His family said Mr Abu Halib was deaf and dumb.
Earlier a 39-year-old mother of four, Ms Hadassah Botbul, was hit in the back by a burst of automatic weapon fire as she drove near the Palestinian self-rule community of Yabed, outside Jenin in the northern West Bank.
The car overturned following the attack, and an Israeli army patrol found Ms Botbul dead, Israeli public radio said.
The report said Ms Botbul lived at the Mebo Dotan settlement southwest of Jenin and was returning home from a visit to the nearby colony of Shaked.
An organisation considered close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the woman's killing.
"The uprising and the resistance will continue because it is our and the Palestinian people's choice," said the Popular Army Front - Brigades of Return, a militant faction linked to Fatah.
"The confrontation will be pursued until the end of the occupation of our land."
The deaths brought to 965 the number of people killed as a direct result of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which broke out on September 28 last year.
They include 755 Palestinians and 188 Israelis.
In another incident, two Palestinian teenagers were wounded in Khan Yunis, one of them seriously, when the southern Gaza Strip camp was fired on from the nearby Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian security sources said.
The Israeli army could not immediately confirm the incident.
Separately, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the head by Israeli fire in Khan Yunis, hospital sources said, but gave no further details.
In the northern Gaza Strip, five Palestinians were hit by bullets and shrapnel from tank shells at the Karni border crossing into Israel, hospital sources said.
Before the shooting, Palestinian youths had been pelting stones at soldiers by the border crossing, the sources said.
A Palestinian security force member was also shot and seriously wounded by Israeli troops Friday night near the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza, hospital sources said.
The officer, who was not identified, is in serious condition after being shot three times in the chest, they said, without providing other details.
The Israeli military could not immediately confirm the shooting.
AFP