Palestinians wounded by Israeli tank shell wait for treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis

Additional reporting by Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, May 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli occupation forces opened fire late Tuesday, May 13, at a Palestinian security post south of the Gaza City, killing three Palestinian security members and wounding two others, Palestinian security sources said.

Twenty-six other Palestinians were also wounded, 23 of them by a missile fired from a U.S.-made Israeli helicopter gunship, during an Israeli incursion into Khan Yunis, they added.

In an interview with IslamOnline.net, Palestinian public security sources said a unit of Israeli commandoes sneaked into Wadi Gaza area in the south of the Gaza City and opened fire at the Palestinian security personnel.

They identified the three martyrs as Mohammed Thabeit, Mohammed Weeshah and Fadel Abou Atawi.

The deaths brings to 3,227 the number of people killed since the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation broke out in September 2000, including 2,436 Palestinians and 731 Israelis, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) account.

More than 40 Israeli armored vehicles had rolled into the southern Gaza Strip town and a nearby village Tuesday night, Palestinian security source said.

More than 20 Israeli armored vehicles, accompanied by three bulldozers and covered by helicopter gunships, entered the Khan Yunis Palestinian refugee camp from the direction of the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim to the west.

Amid gunfire, the Israeli soldiers called out on loudspeakers for the inhabitants of the camp to come out of their homes.

A second unit of some 20 armored vehicles penetrated the village of Qarara, north of Khan Yunis, coming from the Israeli border to the east.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the incursion into Khan Yunis, saying its objective was to put a halt to mortar fire coming from the area.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops raided the northern refugee camp of Tulkarem and abducted seven Palestinians.

The Israeli occupation army, which abducted a total of around 20 Palestinians on Tuesday, also demolished a house belonging to a member of the Hamas resistance group in the nearby town of Qalqilya, sources said.

The Palestinian sources added that three houses under construction in the northern city of Nablus were also torn down by the Israeli army, but a military spokesman said only one building was destroyed.

Elsewhere, Israel police arrested a “wanted” Palestinian who was traveling on an Israeli bus. They had been alerted to his presence by the bus driver who grew suspicious.

"A call came from a bus driver about a suspicious person who was traveling on a bus heading towards Tel Aviv," police spokesman Gil Kleiman told AFP, adding the police public transportation unit stormed the bus and arrested him.

The suspect was found to be a Palestinian wanted for security offences, he claimed.

Two more Palestinians, both leaders of the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, were abducted by the Israeli occupation forces later Tuesday in the West Bank town of Ramallah by an elite undercover unit, the Israelis said.

Salman and Salim Abu Eid have been wanted for the past eight years for alleged attacks including the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier and a bombing attack, both in 1996, the Israeli army said.

Palestinian security sources confirmed the abduction, but could not confirm they belonged to Hamas.

Another 10 Palestinians belonging to the Fatah movement were abducted by the Israeli occupation army in Kafr Malik, a West Bank village north of the Jewish settlement of Ofra.

Solana Scraps Israel Visit

On the diplomatic front, European Foreign Policy Coordinator Javier Solana scrapped a visit to Israel after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office declared he would not be able to meet with the EU official because of Solana's plans to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, reported the Israeli Haaretz daily.

Meanwhile, Sharon's chief of staff Dov Weisglass went to Washington Tuesday to prepare the groundwork for the prime minister's meeting next week with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Before Sharon departs, he will meet with new Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, most likely on Saturday night.

Israel Radio reported Wednesday, May 14, that Abu Mazen would likely be accompanied by Palestinian parliament Speaker Ahmed Korei, Abu Ala, and his Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan.