Palestinian Hadra Amleh, grieves atop the rubble of her family house, destroyed by Israeli forces

LONDON, February 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Britain's minister for Middle East affairs, Mike O'Brien, has expressed deep concern over the killings Thursday, February 6, of two Palestinian nurses by Israeli helicopter gunfire.

O'Brien made his feelings known in a written statement in which he also expressed anger at the killing of a 65-year-old Palestinian woman Wednesday, February 5, during a house demolition, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Such demolitions increase tension on the ground and fuel the cycle of violence," O'Brien said in the statement issued late Thursday.

A 65-year-old woman was killed in the central Gaza Strip, when the army blew up the neighboring house of a Palestinian activist, sending debris flying.

Kamla Abu Said was hit in the head by a chunk of stone as army sappers blew up the house of her husband's late son in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian medical and security sources said. Her body was found several hours later.

Human rights groups have slammed the Israeli practice of destroying the family homes of Palestinian activists as collective punishment and illegal. Israel has destroyed some 140 Palestinian houses till now leaving their residents homeless.

"I was deeply concerned to hear reports of the fatal shooting, apparently by the Israel Forces, of two nurses... The deaths of all innocent civilians are deplorable but all of us feel the particular tragedy of nursing staff being killed," he added.

"I call on the Israeli authorities to do everything within their power to prevent further deaths of civilians," he continued.

Two Palestinian male nurses were killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship opened heavy machinegun fire on a hospital compound in eastern Gaza City.

Abductions with no crime… an Israeli policy that never stops

Omar Hassan, 26, and Abed Al-Karim Loubed, 41, were killed in the compound surrounding the Al-Wafaa hospital for the elderly where they both worked in the Al-Shajiyeh district in eastern Gaza City.

When the shooting started, the two men went outside into the courtyard where they were immediately gunned down, dying on the spot, the sources said.

Several bullets also penetrated the hospital building, but no one else was injured.

"The security of both Israelis and Palestinians deserve can only be achieved through a negotiated peace. I urge both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take immediate steps to resume the political process required to reach that goal."

The two nurses, gunned down by an Israeli helicopter were among six Arabs and two Israeli soldiers killed Thursday in the region's latest flare-up of violence.

Two of the Palestinians killed were resistance fighters shot dead after ambushing Israeli troops at a position on the southern outskirts of Nablus, a northern city which like most of the West Bank has been occupied by Israeli army since June 2002.