GAZA, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Israeli troops shot dead on Monday evening a 12-year-old Palestinian child near the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses and medical sources said.
Medical sources at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Younis told United Press International that Mohamed Henedek, 12 years old was shot with one bullet in the chest that caused his death. No more people injured in the Israeli troops' gunfire.
Eyewitnesses said that a group of children were playing near the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim near Khan Younis refugee camp as Israeli troops opened fire at the boys for no reason.
Henedek is the third Palestinian killed on Monday by Israeli troops few hours after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared that he carried out tough measures to stop all kinds of armed and suicide bombing attacks against Israel
Israeli troops Monday killed a Palestinian police officer in the West Bank village of Tell, near Nablus, a Hamas militant in Hebron and police banned a reception that the PLO's Political Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs, Prof. Sari Nusseibeh, was about told hold.
Police took Nusseibeh, his son, lawyer, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and an aide for questioning at their headquarters in west Jerusalem and then released them.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank rejected Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call for an end to armed attacks on Israel.
A leaflet they released Monday morning called upon Palestinians to continue the armed resistance to Israeli occupation.
They accused Arafat and the Palestinian Authority of acting to please Israel and the United States, and causing a rift among the Palestinian people.
Israeli military source said Monday afternoon's incident near Nablus occurred when soldiers spotted two armed Palestinians some 300 to 400 meters away and fired at them "in self defense." The two Palestinians were not in uniform, the military sources said.
Palestinian sources said the policemen were on patrol and that their duties included stopping shooting and attacks at Israeli army patrols.
The Palestinian sources said the area was completely quite, and the officers did not attack the Israeli soldiers.
Medical sources at Rafidya Hospital identified the dead policeman as Munjid Soliman, 19. His partner was seriously injured.
The Palestinian Authority said the attack shows that the Israeli government seeks to escalate the situation despite Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call for end to armed and suicide bombing attacks on Israel.
Palestinian analyst Ghassan El Khatib said the Israeli violations of
the ceasefire and the killing Palestinians "would put the Palestinian National Authority in an embarrassing situation and weaken its decision to crackdown on militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad."
Earlier Monday, Palestinian sources said that an Israeli army undercover unit killed a senior Hamas military wing activist, Yakoub Dakidak, of Hebron.
The IDF spokesman said the soldiers wanted to arrest Dakidak, "in order to investigate his involvement in Hamas terrorist activity."
Dakidak tried to escape, did not heed the soldiers' call to halt, the soldier opened fire and fatally injured him.
The third incident occurred outside the Imperial Hotel in Jerusalem's Old City where Nusseibeh planned a reception and invited diplomats, Christian and Moslem clergymen, as well as Israeli Peace Now members to mark the Moslem feast of Eid al-Fiter.
Israel's hawkish Public Security Minister Uzi Landau went to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arguing the government should prevent a resumption of Palestinian political activity in town. Sharon then ordered a telephone poll among ministers who decided to ban the reception.
Nusseibeh's spokesman, Dimitri Diliani said some 200 people nevertheless came to the hotel's entrance.
Nusseibeh said he "just apologized to the people for not being able to hold it."
Police detained him and four other people for what a police spokesman said was suspicion of violating the ban and interfering with a policeman conducting his duty. Police brought the five to their headquarters in West Jerusalem, questioned them for an hour and a half and released them.
Minister Landau said Nusseibeh organized the reception on the Palestine Liberation Organization's behalf.
"When such activities are carried out by the PLO, the PA's long arm, this is an act of sovereignty, of government, a semblance of foreign activity inside Jerusalem -- it cannot be accepted under any circumstances," Landau told the army's radio station, Galei Tsahal.
Israeli hawks insist that East Jerusalem is an indivisible part of their capital and shall be so for eternity. The Palestinians want the predominantly Arab East Jerusalem to be their future capital.
Nussibeh argued there was nothing illegal in what he was doing.
Israel and the Palestinians were often at loggerheads over the PLO's activity in Jerusalem. The present government closed the PLO's offices in the Orient House, and Palestinian diplomatic activity in town dropped after Faisal Husseini, the senior PLO representative in Jerusalem died. Nusseibeh took over this summer.
Nusseibeh appears to be a more moderate, pragmatic Palestinian leader with whom Israel might eventually reach an agreement.
Zehava Galon of the dovish Meretz Party said it was "idiotic" not to let him conduct political activity.
Former Foreign Minister and Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami indicated to UPI he believed it was a mistake to turn a minor event into an international issue.
(With reporting by Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza)
