Palestinian woman hurl stones at Israeli workers (AFP)

NABLUS, West Bank, January 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Four  Palestinians, including two teenagers, were killed Saturday, January 3, by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank city of Nablus, while Israeli cabinet number two Ehud Olmert denied that Israel planned settlement expansion in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Amer Arafat, 18, and Rawahi Shuman, 25, were pronounced dead on arrival in hospital, while the third person was not identified, after being hit by Israeli fire in circumstances that were not immediately clear, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Earlier, Amjad Bilal al-Masri, 15, was killed by two bullets to the chest when Israeli occupation troops opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators in the city's old quarter, the scene of repeated Israeli raids over the past two weeks.

An Israeli military source said soldiers on patrol in Nablus had opened fire on a group of Palestinians "after they were attacked with stones".

"One Palestinian was hit," the source said, adding that the soldiers had fired because they "felt themselves in danger".

Two Palestinians were wounded, one of them critically, in a similar incident in the city Friday evening.

Earlier, an explosive device had been detonated against an Israeli jeep.

The latest deaths brought the toll from the nearly 40-month-old Palestinian Intifada to 3,686, including 2,760 Palestinians and 860 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

Golan Plans Denied

An injured Palestinian boy evacuated (AFP)

Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed as "untrue" reports about an Israeli 40-million-dollar plan for building Jewish settlements on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

He was referring to statements made by Israeli Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz who told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot Wednesday, December 31, that Israel was planning to build 900 outposts – nine settlements - in the occupied Syrian plateau.

He said Jewish settlers would jump by 50% over three years there to strengthen Israel's grip on the land seized from Syria in 1967.

"He [Katz] may have declared something... but in terms of the government policy... there is no such approved program," Olmert told the BBC's HARDTalk program.

Olmert said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had already denied an expansion plan ever existed, adding that the government would never agree to finance such a program. Olmert also denied suggestions that the cabinet was deeply split on the issue.

The Heights were occupied by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and were annexed in 1981.

They are a grassy plateau overlooking north-eastern Israel and south-east Syria and have important water resources - providing Israel with a third of its water needs.

There are currently 31 settlements in the Heights with about 10,500 inhabitants.