9-Year-Old Gaza Girl Is Latest Mideast Victim

Israeli troops shot to death a Palestinian girl Saturday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said, while soldiers clashed with Palestinian university students in the West Bank.

Palestinians said 9-year-old Hanneen Abu Suleiman was shot in the head outside her home in the town of Khan Yunis when troops opened fire from a Jewish settlement a few hundred yards away.

Her home is next to a cemetery between the Palestinian town and the Jewish settlement. Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers had fired from a watchtower in the settlement. Israeli military sources said troops had returned fire in the direction of the cemetery after gunmen shot at their outpost.

The soldiers were unable to verify hitting anyone, the Israeli sources said. Palestinians had said earlier that there was no fighting when the child was shot.

Earlier, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian students during an operation near Bethlehem University. A military source said troops came under attack by students throwing stones from inside the college. Soldiers responded by firing rubber bullets and stun grenades into the building, the source said. No injuries were reported.

Also Saturday, Israeli troops blew up the house of an Islamic Jihad member in Dura, a village near Otniel, the West Bank settlement targeted Friday in a Palestinian attack that killed four Israeli seminary students and injured eight others gathered for a Sabbath dinner.

The military would not say if the militant, who was not at home at the time, was suspected in the seminary attack.

In the same village, troops also demolished the home of a militant from Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement who was shot to death by soldiers last year.

Friday’s seminary attack came a day after Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians in raids, ending a relative lull in the fighting. The large death toll raised concerns that the escalation of violence could influence Israel’s Jan. 28 election, boosting the chances of the hard-liners.