Twelve Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank overnight during
Israeli military operations, Palestinian security and medical sources said Thursday.
Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were scheduled to meet Thursday for a third straight day in talks aimed at ending the impasse at the Church of the Nativity, which has been surrounded by troops and tanks ince some 200 Palestinian gunmen took refuge there on April 2.
In the talks, Palestinians have proposed that the gunmen be escorted to the Palestinian-controlled section of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been insisting that the Palestinian gunmen must surrender and either be put on trial in Israel or be deported.
Palestinian security sources said four Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in southern Gaza early Thursday.
The Palestinian security sources denied the Israeli assertion claim that the four gunmen had tried to infiltrate the settlement.
Residents in southern Gaza said a Palestinian policeman was killed and two were injured by Israeli troops' gunfire when troops thrust into the town of Dir el Ballah, also early Thursday.
In the West Bank village of Beit Cahil, northwest of Hebron, Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops killed five Palestinian policemen after midnight.
The residents of the village said the incident occurred when an Israeli army special undercover unit raided the village, searching for Palestinian gunmen.
In Hebron, a member of the elite Force 17 was killed, and four were injured, in clashes with Israeli troops when they entered the Palestinian-controlled section of the city in a bid to get a high-ranked wanted militant near the Islamic College.
Overnight, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian near the settlement of Gush Etzion on the way to Jerusalem, Palestinian Television reported.
In other developments, the Palestinian Preventive Security Services and Islamic Hamas both issued statements calling on teachers, politicians and clergy to prevent children from volunteering for military operations that mean certain death. Three children were killed earlier this week.
During this month, at least 30 Palestinians, most of them teenagers in the Gaza Strip, were killed by Israeli troops near several Jewish settlements, medical Palestinian sources said.
Islamic Hamas said in a leaflet that it tells teenagers to stop trying to infiltrate Jewish settlements.
The three children killed earlier this week were Yousef Zakut, 15, Ismail Abu Nada, 13, and Anwar Hamduna, 13, attended school as usual on Tuesday and told their parents they were going to visit friends.
Instead, they left farewell letters to their parents, and took some makeshift explosives made from firecrackers and knives, and headed for Nitzarim, where they were killed on its outskirts by soldiers defending the
settlement.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman for the Southern Command, Maj. Assaf Librati, told United Press International that soldiers saw figures crawl toward the settlement's fence shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday and fired at them. Wednesday morning the army searched the area and found the boys' bodies and the homemade explosives.
In night-vision equipment, the boys looked like adults, Librati said. It was the second time in two weeks that teenagers were involved in attacks, he said.
The father of Ismael Abu Nada said:
"My son a militant? And my son carried out an armed attack? I don't believe it, and I can't believe it."
The boy's neighbors said Hamas, the group for which the teens were said to work, must be blamed for their deaths.
"This child is not to be blamed," said one neighbor who asked not to be identified by name. "It is Hamas leaders who sent them to carry out attacks.
"Those who send children to carry out attacks and get killed must be punished."
(With reporting by Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv, Israel.)
