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Palestinian Killed As Israel on Alert for Revenge Attacks
OCCUPIED GAZA CITY, July 22 (IslamOline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops near a flashpoint Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip while Israel was on alert Sunday for possible attacks to avenge the killing of three Palestinians last week at the hands of Israeli terrorists.
Yehia Sobhi al-Daya, a 48-year-old father of 20, was killed when an Israeli tank shell hit his home in the Mighraqa region south of Gaza City overnight, Palestinian hospital sources told the French news agency AFP.
Several hundred people, some chanting "revenge, revenge" and waving Palestinian flags, joined his funeral procession in Gaza City.
His death brought to 50 the number of people killed since a shaky ceasefire was declared on June 13 but has so far failed to stem the bloodshed or slow the Israeli military escalation in the Middle East.
The army said Palestinians had opened fire at a military post near Netzarim, a Jewish settlement near Mighraqa.
"The army force that arrived on the scene identified two armed terrorists and ran after them while firing at them," it said in a statement.
In Israel, police blew up a bomb discovered in the northern port city of Haifa shortly after arresting a Palestinian they suspected of preparing a bomb attack, Israeli occupation police sources said.
Security has been tightened around the city, with roadblocks and intensive security checks, and a general alert declared across the north of the country.
But the Israeli authorities have slapped a ban on publication of further details surrounding the incident.
Israeli security officials have warned of possible reprisal attacks after the killing by suspected Jewish terrorists of three members of a Palestinian family, including a baby, in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron on Thursday night.
At the funeral of the three on Friday, activists from the occupation resistance Hamas movement, responsible for the majority of anti-occupation attacks in recent years, vowed to avenge their deaths.
A member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction was also killed in Hebron on Friday. The Palestinians said a Fatah office was shelled by Israeli forces but the Israelis said the man died handling explosives.
In other incidents Sunday, a bomb exploded in the path of an Israeli bus near the Green Line between the Israeli town of Afula and the Palestinian self-rule town of Jenin, but did not cause any injuries, the army said.
A soldier was also slightly wounded when a grenade was hurled by Palestinians at a military post in the Rafah area on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the army said.
The Rafah terminal was closed temporarily following the incident, Palestinian security sources said.
The army said Palestinians also opened fire overnight on a checkpoint at Shuweika north of Tulkarem and set off a bomb in the path of a military patrol but no injuries or damage were caused.
In a statement issued in Damascus, the Al-Quds Squadron, the armed wing of occupation resistance Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attacks near Shuweika which it said caused some injuries among the soldiers.
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