Bad News From Palestine

Undercover Israeli special forces shot dead four Palestinians including a young girl during an ambush in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday, local witnesses and medics said.

They said plainclothes Israelis fired on a car in the town centre, killing three men inside. The girl was killed when the Israelis shot at a second car in the mistaken belief militants were inside, they said.

Israel radio said the first car contained members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas who opened fire before being killed by Israeli forces.

It said another Palestinian car came into the area moments after the first and Israeli forces, believing they were about to be attacked, shot and killed a 10-year-old girl inside.

Hospital officials said another girl of 15 in the car was wounded by shrapnel. Israel radio said the male driver was also hurt.

The troops opened fire on a BMW vehicle in which the two Hamas activists were traveling. Three passers-by were wounded by the gunfire, including the girl, who suffered critical injuries and died on the way to hospital. The two other Palestinians suffered light-to-moderate wounds.

Earlier, a Palestinian boy aged 12 was shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, during clashes with stone-throwing Palestinian youths, hospital officials said.

Haqam Nassar was hit in the stomach by a bullet when Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd pelt armoured vehicles with rocks, Palestinian officials said. One other youth aged 15 was shot in the leg.

He was killed a day after another Palestinian child, aged 13, was shot dead in similar circumstances in Jenin.

In Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces shot two youths who had climbed aboard an armored personnel carrier and were trying to steal a machine gun, the army said. The two were taken away by Palestinian ambulances, the army added.

Palestinian witnesses asserted that the two boys were throwing stones, and were not on the vehicle when they were shot. One of the boys, Haqam Nassar, 14, was shot in the abdomen and died of his wounds, while the second boy, age 12, was wounded in the leg, the Palestinians said.