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Palestinian Killed By Israeli Troops In West Bank On First Day Of Muslim Feast
NABLUS, West Bank, March 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The body of a Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers was found early Monday near Jenin in the north of the West Bank, Palestinian hospital sources said.
Ussama Najhahia, 20, was shot in the head during a gunfight with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, witnesses said. His body was found to the north of Jenin.
His death brings to 434 the number of those killed in the Intifada, or uprising, which started on September 28th: the dead comprise 355 Palestinians, one German, 13 Israeli Arabs and 65 other Israelis.
Some 4,000 people, including some 40 gunmen, some of them masked, shouted and fired guns during Najhahia's funeral procession later Monday in the northern West Bank town of Jenin
"Revenge, revenge," shouted mourners as they traversed through the streets of the Palestinian-run town.
In the Gaza Strip Monday, two Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli troops in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza near the Gush Katif settlement bloc, medical officials said.
One was shot in the stomach and was considered in serious condition, they added.
Witnesses said the men were not involved in clashes or a gunfight with soldiers when they were shot.
In an attempt to reduce the increasing number of Palestinians shot while not involved in fighting Israelis, the National and Islamic Forces - a coalition of Palestinian factions - re-issued a call on Palestinian gunmen not to shoot from populated areas.
In a statement carried in the Palestinian al-Ayyam newspaper Monday, the group said it "condemns shooting from populated centers and calls on police to be responsible to enforce this."
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon was putting the finishing touches to his right-left coalition government on Monday as Israel boosted security along the border with the West Bank to guard against more feared bomb attacks.
Security forces were concentrated along the so-called Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank and in the main towns and cities in a bid to prevent a repetition of Sunday's suicide bombing which killed three Israelis.
Sharon, the 73-year-old hawkish former general who hopes to present his new government to parliament Wednesday, has vowed to restore security after five months of blazing Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"There's every chance that he will present his government to the Knesset on Wednesday even if he has not formally concluded all the accords with the parties which will be part of the coalition," Gissin said.
Sharon's Likud party has already won the support of Barak's Labor party and the powerful ultra-Orthodox Shas and is assured of at least 64 seats in the parliament with the far-right Russian immigrant party Israel Beiteinu.
If it forges agreements with all its allies on the right wing, the government would have 85 seats in the 120-member parliament. Sharon is expected to have 28 ministers in his cabinet.
Israeli police chief Shlomo Aharonishki said security had been bolstered although the security services were not in possession of precise intelligence on planned attacks.
"We have carried out maximum deployment of our forces, using all the cadets undergoing training, calling on volunteers and asking for help from the army," he told army radio.
"The more police there are on the ground, the greater the deterrent effect and the more the population is reassured," he added, while warning that the 320-kilometer (200 mile) border could not be hermetically sealed.
A bomber blew himself up on Sunday in the coastal resort of Netanya, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Green Line, killing another three people and injuring more than 40.
It was the fourth attack in Israel since Sharon's thundering election defeat on February 6th over outgoing premier Ehud Barak, toppled after just 19 months in power over the deadly wave of violence and over Israeli perceptions of his far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians during peace talks.
Sharon pointed the finger at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying his forces were involved in such attacks.
The armed wing of the hardline Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has vowed to greet Sharon with a series of attacks when he takes office, saying it has "more than 10 suicide bombers ready to strike the Zionist entity."
The European Union urged both sides to act at once to end the spiraling violence, appealing for them in a statement issued in Sweden to restore security cooperation.
It also urged the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships "to do their utmost to prevent terrorist acts and the growth of sentiments of revenge."
But Arafat said the Palestinians would continue their struggle until Palestinian flags were raised over Jerusalem.
"We will continue despite the starvation, the military closure and the extremely dangerous military escalation until we raise a Palestinian flag over the walls of Jerusalem, the mosques of Jerusalem and the churches of Jerusalem," he said after prayers in Gaza City for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Palestinian media reported that security services of Arafat's self-rule authority have gone on heightened alert fearing Israeli reprisals after the Netanya bombing.
The Israeli Parliament was due Monday to give its first reading of the 240 billion shekel ($60 billion) state budget, which must be approved by the end of March or early elections will be triggered, but the debate was delayed until Wednesday, a Knesset spokesman said.
In another development, the daughter of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, has been offered the job of deputy defense minister. She would be the first woman to serve in the post.
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