A Palestinian woman and a man plead to Israeli soldiers to let them through into the West bank town of Nablus

GAZA CITY, December 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – An 11-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when Israeli occupation troops opened fire Thursday, December 19, in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Palestinian security sources said.

Nada Madi, 11, was hit in the chest by automatic gunfire as she was in her house in Rafah, near the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, the sources said.

Her death brings to 2,776 the number of persons killed since the start of the current wave of Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

These include 2,047 Palestinians – mostly women and children - and 680 Israelis.

Meanwhile, some 300 demonstrators on Thursday brought down an iron gate the Israeli army had erected to divide the West Bank city of Nablus, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

When Israeli tanks moved back into the center of Nablus on November 12 following a shooting attack which killed five Israelis, troops set up a concrete roadblock splitting the city in two halves.

Part of the checkpoint was a five-meter (16 feet)-wide and 3-metre (10 feet) -high iron gate which remained closed during curfew.

Among the demonstrators were some 20 foreigners, mainly American, British and Canadian aid workers, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

No incidents were reported during the demonstration, as the curfew was lifted Thursday in Nablus, and no soldiers were manning the checkpoint.

As the protest broke up after the gate was taken down, drivers around the city greeted the news by sounding their horns.

Also in Nablus, a Palestinian photographer for AFP said he was beaten by two Israeli border police Thursday as he tried to enter the West Bank city after visiting his family in a nearby village.

Jaafar Ashtiye said two border guards stepped out of their jeep at a checkpoint between Nablus and the suburb of Salim, and tried to confiscate his camera.

When he refused to let go of the camera and demanded explanations, they threw him to the ground and hit him in the neck and head, he said, adding that he had suffered no serious injuries.

In April another AFP photographer in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Hossam Abu Alan, was held for six months in an Israeli jail and was released on October 23 without trial or explanation.

In August, the AFP photographer in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Seif Shauki Dahlah, said that Israeli soldiers stole 2,000 dollars worth of jewelry and three mobile phones during a search of his house.

He was also advised to change jobs because he was running the risk of “ending up like Imad Abu Zahra,” another Palestinian photographer in Jenin who was killed in June.

The border police were unavailable for comment.