GAZA CITY, 7 December 2006 — Breaking a Nov. 26 truce for the first time, Israeli soldiers shot and wounded two Palestinians who approached the Gaza Strip border yesterday.
Palestinian ambulance workers said the two men were unarmed. An Israeli military spokesman said they had behaved suspiciously and ignored warning shots to make them move away from an Israeli-built border fence. The shootings occurred in separate locations, the spokesman said.
In the first incident, one Palestinian climbed a pole near the fence while another appeared to place an explosive charge on the ground, he said.
“The Israeli force called on them to move back and fired in the air. They moved away,” the spokesman said.
“Later, several dozen people crowded near the fence, along with the same two men. One of them, using the crowd for cover, appeared to continue to place a charge. The force then fired at him, and according to our information, he was shot in the leg.”
In the second incident, near the Erez Border Crossing, a Palestinian crossed a perimeter fence, drawing shouted warnings from Israeli soldiers to turn back before he reached the main frontier barrier.
“He didn’t. They fired in the air and he still didn’t stop. Then they fired at him, hitting him in the leg,” the spokesman said.
Local residents said the two men may have been collecting scrap metal in the area.
Since the cease-fire was declared, Palestinian fighters in Gaza have fired several rockets into southern Israel, drawing no Israeli military response amid pledges by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to show restraint for the time being.
Meanwhile, Palestinians fired a rocket at southern Israel yesterday afternoon, causing no damage or casualties, in the latest violation of the frail truce, the army said.
The rocket landed in an uninhabited open field near the border with the coastal strip, an army spokesman told AFP.
It brought to 17 the total number of rockets fired into Israel since the truce, he said.
Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel withdrew troops from Gaza and Palestinian fighters were supposed to stop firing rockets in the Jewish state.
In another development, senior Israeli security sources said yesterday that the two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded during their capture by Hezbollah in July and at least one of them could now be dead.
They cited the findings of an internal probe — previously suppressed by military censors — into evidence gathered from the border patrol road where the ambush took place.
The two would have required urgent medical attention to survive, the probe said. At least one was taken away in critical condition, it added, raising the possibility he later died.
Were that to be independently confirmed, it could alleviate domestic pressure on Olmert to enter into the prisoner swap demanded by Hezbollah, which has refused to comment on the soldiers’ condition or location.
— With input from agencies
