Abbas condemns Israeli killing of six Palestinians
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Following Israel's killing of six Palestinians in two attacks on Saturday, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel decided to cause a turmoil in the Palestinian territories after peace process stopped.
The killing of six Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank this morning "reveals that the occupation's government has decided to destroy the security and stability of the Palestinian people," said spokesman Nabil Abu Rdineh.
"Israel wants to drag our people to the circle of bloody violence to bypass increasing international pressure on its government that it is responsible for blocking the horizon of the peace process," Abu Rdineh added in remarks published by the official news agency Wafa.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including three militants, in two attacks early Saturday in northern Gaza Strip and West Bank city of Nablus, witnesses and local sources said.
In the first raid, the Israeli troops invaded Nablus city and killed three activists affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.
Ra'ed al-Sarkaji, 38, Ghassan Abu Sharekh, in his 30s, and Anan Soboh were all killed in separated incidents in the city.
Dr. Ghassan Hamdan from the city's hospital told reporters that the Israeli soldier broke into al-Sarkaji's house, killed him in front of his wife who was injured, and they shot dead Abu Sharekh after arresting him.
In another building, the troops killed Soboh who is also a member of pro-Abbas Preventive Security Forces. Anan had got an Israeli amnesty on his previous activities during his service in Fatah's military wing that Abbas had dismantled in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers killed three civilians near a crossing point in northern Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said that four people were trying to infiltrate into Israel through the security fence near Erez crossing but the army spotted them and opened fire, killing three and wounding the fourth.
Bedouins who live in northern Gaza Strip approached the area on donkey-pulled cars, trying to evacuate the bodies but the Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to force them back.
The condition of the fourth Palestinian is still unclear.
Abu Rdineh said the operation in Nablus aimed at undermining the security measures the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) had applied in coordination with the United States which sent a security envoy to oversee the training of pro-Abbas forces.
In the Gaza Strip, controlled by Islamic Hamas movement, there has been an undeclared ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Hamas took over Gaza after routing pro-Abbas forces in June 2007.
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