Palestinian medics evacuate Palestinians killed during an Israeli incursion in Nablus (AFP)

GAZA CITY, December 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces in a fresh incursion into the West Bank city of Nablus in the small hours of Thursday, December 18, as Israeli officials vowed to complete the construction of the widely-criticized separation wall by 2005.

Israeli sources admitted shooting dead three people in ensuing clashes after the incursion, claiming automatic weapons were found by their bodies, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Palestinian security sources confirmed three deaths, without giving details.

Earlier, sources on both sides had reported that Israeli soldiers gunned down a Palestinian and injured another during the incursion.

Alaadin Dawayeh, 25, a bakery worker, breathed his last after being hit by no fewer than 15 bullets from Israeli soldiers, they asserted.

The sources added that the Israeli raid, involving several armored, was still continuing.

The latest Palestinian fatalities brought to 3,651 the number killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in late September 2000, including 2,731 Palestinians and 854 Israelis, according to AFP count.

The incursion came a few hours after a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in the impoverished refugee camp of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation forces also carried out a massive incursion into Nablus on December 11, leaving more than 17 people shot and dead, including a child who was pronounced clinically dead.

Separation Wall

Netanyahu announced allocating additional 160 million dollars to the construction of the wall

In the meantime, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that the separation wall, which has drawn a barrage of international criticism for snaking through large swathes of Palestinian territories, should be completed by the end of 2005.

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, December 17, announced that an additional 160 million dollars would be allocated to the construction of the barrier, whose northern section has already been completed, the Israeli public radio said.

The defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved in October a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

The barrier does not follow the Green Line marking the boundary between Israel and the West Bank and cuts deep into Palestinian territory in places.

Israel claims that the 600 kilometers (320 miles) barrier is necessary to protect its citizens against Palestinian bombers.

However, Palestinians believe it is intended to predetermine the borders of their future independent state.

The U.N. General Assembly has requested a legal opinion on the barrier from the International Court of Justice.

The measure came shortly after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated that Israel’s controversial wall is a setback for the peace process, saying that the barrier is a “deeply counterproductive act” in violation of international law.

A U.N. report had earlier underlined that the wall marked illegal annexation  of Palestinian territory and must be condemned by the world community.

The wall will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of Palestinian territory on the Israeli side.