GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians, one a civilian woman the other a militant, in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the army and Palestinian medical sources said.
In the first incident soldiers opened fire on two Palestinian militants attempting to place explosives near the Gaza border fence on Sunday, killing one and wounding the other, the army said.
"A unit saw two armed men preparing to place an explosive charge near the security fence. They opened fire and hit one of them," an army spokeswoman said.
The army later retrieved two Kalashnikov assault rifles and an explosive charge from the scene of the incident in the southern Gaza Strip near the border town of Rafah, she added.
Palestinian medics identified the dead man as Adel Ashta, 23, a fighter in the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since seizing power in June.
In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers opened fire later Sunday on a group of Palestinians awaiting returning Hajj pilgrims in the Gaza Strip, killing a 30-year-old woman, Palestinian medical sources said.
The soldiers, who were in a tank, opened fire in the Erez region near a passage connecting Israel to Gaza, they said.
The husband of the 30-year-old victim Halbia Altibani was among three others injured in the attack, the medical sources said.
The Israeli army, when contacted by AFP, said it was not aware of the incident.
The latest deaths brings to 6,013 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally.
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