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NABLUS, West Bank, April 23 (AFP): Israeli troops killed three members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement early Friday at Kalkilya in the north of the West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said.
The three were shot by a "special unit" disguised as Palestinians who arrived in an unmarked car, security sources said.
A fourth Palestinian, Atef Shaaban, head of the armed radical group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which is linked to Fatah, was seriously wounded by the Israeli unit.
The dead, aged between 20 and 25, were named as Abdel Rahman Nazal, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Mohammed Nazal and Mohammed Odeh, two Fatah political activists.
"They fled and the soldiers then shot at them, killing three and wounding the fourth," the spokesman told AFP.
At daybreak Thursday the Israeli army had killed three Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members during a clash in the nearby West Bank town of Tulkarem.
Two young Palestinian girls and a teenager were killed Thursday while another 30 Palestinians were shot and wounded during an Israeli incursion in Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said.
Palestinian security sources said soldiers opened fire at stone-throwing demonstrators as they were withdrawing from Beit Lahiya after an incursion launched Tuesday and in which 15 Palestinians have now been killed.
But the army said the troops were attacked by petrol bombs and anti-tank rockets. An officer was slightly wounded.
Another Palestinian man was killed Friday during an Israeli operation aimed at arresting militants near this northern West Bank city, the family of the dead man and the Israeli army told AFP.
The family of Yasser Abu Leimun, 32, said he was killed accidentally in Talluza, north of Nablus, but the army spokeswoman said he was part of a group of four wanted militants and a member of the radical Islamic movement Hamas.
Abu Leimun's wife said he was a university professor and not known for his political affiliations.
She said he was outside his house when a stray bullet killed him and complained troops had prevented an ambulance from evacuating him to a nearby hospital.
Palestinian security sources said Abu Leimun's neighbour and Hamas member Imad Janajri had in fact been wanted by Israel.
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