The body of a Palestinian boy killed by Israel

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, January 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinians, including three teenaged boys, as a crackdown on Israeli Arab politicians sparked accusations that the Jewish state was violating democratic rules.

Israeli troops killed the boys, aged 13, 14 and 16, claiming they tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip late Wednesday, January 1, as well as a Palestinian man who allegedly was carrying a bomb near an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank.

The soldiers had opened fire at three suspect figures trying to break into the Alei Sinai settlement, a fenced-in Israeli buffer zone in northern Gaza, but the Palestinians immediately denounced the killings, Israeli military sources said.

"This is another crime of Israeli state terrorism," top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"(Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon began the year 2003 with violence."

An Israeli officer told AFP that the three youths were killed "after cutting through the fence that surrounds the Alei Sinai settlement.

"Soldiers posted in the area spotted them and fired in their direction thinking they were terrorists."

No Arms on The Boys

The three did not have any firearms or bombs but one of them had a big knife, the officer added.

In a separate incident in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man they said was carrying a bomb in a bag near an Israeli settlement close to Nablus late Wednesday.

Military officials said a military patrol saw the man carrying a big bag as he got close to the Kedoumin settlement.

The device exploded when the Israelis opened fire after challenging him, the officials added.

Incursion into Gaza

Palestinians pay last respect to the three boys

In another incident, three Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were injured during exchanges of fire during an overnight Israeli military sweep into the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said Thursday, January 2.

The Israeli troops, backed by 20 tanks and two bulldozers rolled into areas including the Al Bureij Palestinian refugee camp, the sources said.

The two Israeli soldiers were only slightly injured, Israeli military sources said.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops abducted 13 Palestinians, including six in Bethlehem, an army spokesman said.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian man holed up in a house in northern Israel overnight was shot dead by Israeli police officers who stormed the building, police sources said Thursday.

An Israeli couple who lived in the house in the Maor area, on the edge of the West Bank, managed to flee. The husband tussled with the gunman, during which time a stray shot was fired. The occupant managed to close one of the interior doors, winning the time to escape with his wife.

Police and security service personnel arrived at the scene and shot the Palestinian dead, the sources said.

The would-be kidnapper was carrying an automatic weapon and wearing a bullet-proof vest, they added, without giving further details of the assailant.

The latest deaths raised to 2,811 the number of people killed since the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000, most of them Palestinians.

Political Crackdown

On the political level, while cracking down on Israeli Arab support for Palestinians’ rifgts, Israel's rightist-dominated electoral commission allowed the candidacy of Baruch Marzel, a former member of the Israel's racist Kach party.

"This is a step towards apartheid, at least in the political culture. The decision can still be reversed legally, but culturally the damage is done," former MK Azmi Bishara told AFP.

Israel's electoral commission banned lawmaker Bishara and his Balad party late Tuesday, December 31, from running in the legislative elections, in a move against Israeli Arab politicians that sparked accusations the Jewish state was violating democratic rules.

It was the second time in as many days that an Israeli Arab lawmaker was barred from running for re-election to parliament, but the first time an entire party was disqualified by the commission.

Ahmed Tibi, who heads another party, was excluded from the race Monday, December 30.

The decision, based on the charge that both politicians supported "Palestinian terror", will be examined by the Supreme Court on January 7, after appeals were lodged.

Commentators said the commission's decisions were likely to be overturned but warned that the incident would put further strain on Jewish-Arab relations.