Clothes of one of the Jihad members killed by Israel

HEBRON, West Bank, September 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Israeli army killed four Palestinians in separate pre-dawn raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Thursday, September 25, which also left one Israeli soldier killed and six others injured, security sources said on both sides.

Two Palestinians, including a member of the armed branch of the Hamas resistance group, were shot dead during an overnight incursion into the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli military sources, six soldiers were injured in the operation, three of them seriously, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

But according to Al Jazeera, five Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed during the incursion, the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera reported.

The Palestinian victims were named as Mohammad Bashir Akel, who belonged to the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, and Nur Abu al-Mana, 20, about whom there was no information.

In another pre-dawn raid, Israeli troops thrust into the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip sparking clashes that left two more Palestinians dead, Palestinian medical sources said.

The victims was identified as Mohammad Bashir Akel, a member of Hamas' military wing, and Nur Abu al-Mana, a fighter from Islamic Jihad.

Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, issued a statement confirming the identities of its three memebers killed Thursday and also said that one of the Israeli soldiers reported wounded in al-Bureij had been killed.

'Died Of Fright'

A three-year-old girl also died of fright when the column of 35 Israeli armored vehicles, including tanks, pushed into the camp backed up by a helicopter gunship, family and hospital sources said.

The Israeli troops surrounded a house as the tanks and helicopter opened fire before withdrawing, the sources said.

The death of Akel was announced by loudhailer from the camp's mosque.

Meanwhile in the West Bank Israeli troops killed two members of Islamic Jihad during an attack on a house in the southern city of Hebron, Palestinian security sources said.

The two dead men were named as Diab al-Shueki and Abdelrahim Talahmeh.

Israeli military sources said the pair died during an exchange of fire in the house where they were holed up.

A third Palestinian man was seriously injured and taken by ambulance towards occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli sources said Diab al-Shueki was a local head of Islamic Jihad.

The latest deaths brought to 3,490 the number of people killed during the three-year Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, including 2,608 Palestinians and 819 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

According to military sources, four Hamas leaders and four Islamic Jihad were assassinated by the Israeli occupation army in Hebron over the past two months.

The sources added that another eight Palestinians were arrested overnight in the West Bank.

The latest raids came after 27 Israeli air force pilots said on Wednesday they would no longer carry out strikes against targets in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The pilots, believed to be regulars and reservists, recently submitted a petition opposing the missions to air force head General Dan Haloutz, the Israeli radio said, but gave no further details.