A Palestinian youth weeps over the body of Hemdan

Additional Reporting By Mostafa al-Sawaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, September 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A 15-year-old Palestinian was killed and 11 others injured when Israeli forces stormed early Wednesday, September 24, the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah.

Scores of Israeli tanks and military vehicles pushed deep into Al-Qassassin area in the refugee camp near the border with Egypt under the cover of warplanes, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Mohmmad Eisa Hemdan died in hospital of injuries he sustained from shrapnel of an Israeli tank shell, according to hospital sources. Eleven others were also injured, five seriously.

Witnesses told IOL that Israeli tanks bulldozed flat dozens of houses in the area, noting that Palestinians stood up to the Israeli aggression with grenades and automatic rifles.

An Israeli military source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that there had been a "massive exchange" of gunfire and several Palestinian gunmen had been hit, but was not aware of any fatalities.

The latest death brought to 3,486 the number of people killed during the three-year Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation, including 2,604 Palestinians and 819 Israelis, according to an AFP toll.

On Tuesday, September 23, Israeli troops shot dead a 19-year-old activist of the Islamic Jihad near the border with the Gaza Strip.

In southern Gaza , a 12-year-old Palestinian boy and a 38-year-old man were also wounded by Israeli automatic gunfire.

The pair were injured when Israeli troops opened fire near a school in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.

Also on Tuesday, three Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire in the village of Kafr Malik , near the West Bank city of Ramallah during a Palestinian rally protesting Israel ’s demolition of the house of Salih Salama, a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

On Monday, September 22, Israeli troops killed a leader of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil .