Women, Children Casualties in Gaza

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her three children as well as a second woman in a Gaza Strip refugee camp early Sunday, Palestinian witnesses said.

Nahla Aqel, 40, her 14-year-old daughter and her 4- and 7-year-old sons were walking home on a road near the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt when Israeli troops opened fire from a position nearby, Palestinian witnesses said.

“The woman and her family were walking in the middle of the street, and I saw her fall, and blood covering her body, and not far from her, the ... children also fell,” said witness Samir abu Shahin.

Aqel died of a bullet wound in the neck, Shahin said. Her 4-year-old son was shot in the head, and her daughter was shot in the back. Their wounds were considered life-threatening, Shahin said.

The 7-year-old was also wounded moderately, doctors said, but the nature of his injuries was not clear.

A second woman was shot in the head, Shahin said, but no further details were available.

Israel said soldiers shot at armed Palestinians trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement, Rafiah Yam, and had no information on civilians being shot.

Meanwhile, two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded early Sunday when a bomb went off on the Israeli-Lebanese border. A jeep on routine patrol along the western part of the border ran over an explosive device. One of the soldiers lost both his legs, doctors said.

Two other soldiers were wounded, one lightly and another moderately, when a bomb exploded next to their jeep near the West Bank town of Tulkarm, army officials said.