Palestinian killed on Gaza border

Gaza, 10 Jul, (bdnews24.com/BBC online)--Israeli troops have killed an unarmed Palestinian who crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the military says.

An army spokesman said soldiers saw the man near the Kissufim crossing, so they fired warning shots. When he did not stop, they opened fire and killed him.

It is the first death along the border since a 19 June ceasefire meant to calm violence and ease the Israeli blockade.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a member of the Islamist group, Hamas, near the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israeli military said undercover members of the Border Police had opened fire after Talal Abed tried to escape arrest. He later died of his wounds in hospital.

It said Mr Abed was a member of a Hamas cell in the village of Kafr Dan that "had been planning an imminent terror attack".

Local residents said two other people were wounded in the incident.

The Gaza ceasefire does not extend to the West Bank, and Israel has been increasing its efforts to crack down on militants there.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, has warned Israel that its military operations in the West Bank are undermining the Palestinian Authority's own US-backed efforts to improve security.

'Warning shots'

The Palestinian medical liaison office in Gaza said they had been informed by the Israeli army that a man had been killed at Kissufim early on Thursday.

An army spokesman said its troops had identified a "suspicious person" crossing the border fence at around 0300 (0000 GMT).

"The force called on him to stop and fired warning shots, but he did not stop and the soldiers fired at him and killed him," the spokesman told AFP news agency.

"When they approached his body they saw he was unarmed."

Correspondents say the shooting is not technically a violation of the ceasefire, which applies to Gaza only.

The incident came two days after Israel said it had agreed to an Egyptian request to re-open border crossings with the Gaza Strip.

It had earlier said crossings would be closed in the wake of Palestinian mortar fire on Monday.

The crossings have been sealed off a number of times since the fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian militants began.

Israel intensified its blockade of Gaza, allowing in only humanitarian and basic supplies, after Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007.

bdnews24.com/lq/1707 hrs.