Palestinian Teenager, Israeli Soldier Slain

Palestinian gunmen fired on Israeli troops searching for smuggling tunnels Wednesday along the sandy border with Egypt, killing an army lieutenant--the first Israeli to die in the last 20 days of the Mideast conflict.

In a separate shooting, a Palestinian teenager was killed when Israeli soldiers fired on stone-throwers in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinians said.

Meanwhile, a prominent Palestinian moderate, Sari Nusseibeh, said he has spent the last several months quietly working on a Middle East peace proposal with Ami Ayalon, the former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service. Both men were in Greece this week for meetings. The plan is to be presented to both sides as a petition, Nusseibeh said Wednesday.

Israeli army Lt. Haggai Lev was hit by a sniper while he and other soldiers were looking for the underground passages in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, the army said. In recent months, Israeli forces have found about a dozen tunnels used to smuggle weapons and drugs. The tunnels begin on the Egyptian side and emerge inside Palestinian homes in the border town of Rafah.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the shooting in announcements at several mosques in Rafah.

The Israeli military said soldiers found and destroyed a weapons-smuggling tunnel Wednesday morning in the area where the officer was killed.

In Nablus, Israeli soldiers fired on a group of children and teenagers who threw stones at tanks as the vehicles passed by the Askar refugee camp, residents said. The army said it was checking the report.

Rami Kotosh, 19, died of a bullet to the chest, hospital officials in Nablus said. Two other Palestinians, ages 13 and 11, were slightly injured, Palestinians said.