Israelis Reportedly Kill 2 Protesters and Wound 6

Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians and wounded at least six others Saturday during clashes with stone-throwing protesters in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, Arab sources said.

The army clamped a curfew on sections of the Gaza Strip town of Rafah and the neighboring refugee camp following a clash in which an Arab protester was killed and five others were wounded.

Military sources said the violence “most likely” is related to the deaths of two Arab workers from the Gaza Strip who were killed Tuesday after being trapped in a burning hut near Tel Aviv. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

Soldiers attacked by stone-throwing Palestinians in Rafah’s marketplace fired shots in the air and then opened fire on a crowd, killing one person and wounding at least five others, Arab sources said. Among the wounded was a 20-year-old man who was shot in the head and taken to a hospital in Tel Aviv, the sources said.

Palestinian sources said Mohammed Eid Abu Rezek, 52, was shot in the head and chest and died at Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Residents of the nearby Rafah refugee camp, where Rezek lived, spilled into the streets protesting the Palestinian’s death and set tires on fire, the sources said.

In the Janin refugee camp in the West Bank, Yousef Damaj, 12, was shot in the chest and killed during a demonstration Saturday evening, Palestinian sources said. Another Palestinian was reportedly shot in the leg during a clash at the Tulkarm refugee camp. Well over 220 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since the eight-month Palestinian uprising began Dec. 9.