JERUSALEM, 24 July 2004 — A Palestinian teenager was killed yesterday morning in Beit Hanoon, northern Gaza Strip, when the Israeli troops indiscriminately opened fire on civilians, Palestinian security sources said.
Witnesses said that Hassan Al-Zanin, 15, was shot dead as he was joining protests against Palestinian activists who were attempting to plant a roadside bomb to be used against Israelis.
The protesters said people in the city feared that any attack against Israeli troops would lead to collective Israeli revenge.
Palestinian security sources claimed Israeli troops killed the teenager when they opened fire on both the activists and the residents.
Medics said Zanin was hit in the chest and died before reaching hospital. Three other people, including Zanin’s 50-year-old father, were wounded.
Meanwhile, beleaguered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat faced new protests.
Thousands of Islamic Jihad supporters also gathered in the territory for the funerals of two members of the group killed in an Israeli airstrike, including one high on the Jewish state’s wanted list for allegedly parading the remains of soldiers through the streets.
In Shijahieh, an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City, some 2,000 Islamic Jihad supporters staged an angry funeral for two fighters killed in an Israeli helicopter raid in Gaza late Thursday.
An Israeli Army spokesman confirmed the target of the strike was Hazem Arhim, a 27-year-old senior member of the group’s armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.
Arhim walked through the streets of Gaza City in May with what he said were the remains of six Israeli soldiers killed in a roadside bombing. The other slain fighter was identified as Rauf Abu Asi.
