ISRAELI forces launched a deadly airstrike that struck southern Gaza on Tuesday, killing three young Palestinians.
Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra confirmed that three Palestinian resistance fighters were killed by the airstrike in southeast Khan Younis near the Sufa crossing.
Al-Qidra identified the victims as Ismail Abu Judah, 23, Shahir Abu Shanab, 24, and 33-year-old Abd al-Shafi Muammar.
Al-Qidra added that the bodies were taken to the European Hospital in Khan Younis.
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, said in a statement that the victims were militants affiliated to the group.
‘They were in confrontation with the occupation trying to stop the progress of Israeli military vehicles which were approaching the area’, the statement said.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, an Israeli drone fell in the area of the attack.
The airstrikes came just hours after Palestinian security sources said a man died after Israeli soldiers fired at him while he was driving near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
The Israeli army also killed two Palestinians in the West Bank on Monday.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed 18-year-old Saji Darwish near Ramallah late on Monday, after he allegedly ‘threw stones at Israeli vehicles’.
Earlier, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian-Jordanian judge at the Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan.
Meanwhile also on Tuesday Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli forces near Bethlehem.
A number of young Palestinian men were injured by rubber bullets and excessive tear gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli troops near Bethlehem.
Youths in the area organised a rally near Azza refugee camp to protest against the Israeli army’s recent killings of Palestinians, locals said.
Witnesses said that clashes broke out between the protesters and Israeli forces.
Palestinians threw rocks and empty bottles while Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at the youths.
A number of Palestinians were taken to the hospital for treatment, locals said, without specifying how many.
• The Israel Prime Minister has threatened that there will be ‘no deal’, unless the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) recognises the ‘Jewish state’.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he ruled out any deal with the PLO unless they ‘recognise Israel as a Jewish state’ and ‘give up the right of return for Palestinian refugees’.
He also said Israel and the Palestinians were getting further away from reaching a ‘peace deal’.
Netanyahu said in remarks, broadcast on Israeli public radio: ‘They (Palestinians) say they will never recognise a Jewish state and that they will never give up on the right of return.’
He was addressing the extreme ruling right-wing Likud-Beitenu faction of the Zionists state he said: ‘I want to make clear that I will not accept an agreement that does not cancel the (refugees’) right of return and which does not include Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state.
‘These are basic conditions, which are justified and vital to the security of Israel.’
The PLO reject that claim, underlining that they already recognised Israel in 1993 and saying that enshrining it as a ‘Jewish state’ would jeopardise the rights of the around 20 per cent of Israeli citizens who are of Palestinian descent, in addition to the Palestinian refugees’ right to return home.
US Secretary of State John Kerry gave a deadline of April 29 to reach an ‘agreement’ and allow them to continue to the end of the year, with a clause relating to the issue of the Jewish state reportedly included in the proposal.
For the PLO, the issue is intimately entwined with the fate of their refugees who in 1948, when Israel seized their land, were driven from their homes in their hundreds of thousands.
At the time the palestinian refugees numbered 760,000.
• Israel has claimed that it ‘regrets’ the fatal shooting of Jordanian-Palestinian judge Read Zeiter by Israeli troops at a West Bank border crossing, a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said.
‘Israel regrets the death of Judge Raed Zeiter yesterday (Monday) at the King Hussein (Allenby) bridge and expresses its sympathies to the people and government of Jordan,’ the statement from Netan-yahu’s office said.
The shooting, which took place on Monday morning, sparked the fury of both Jordan and the Palestinians, with protesters in Amman demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and the abrogation of the two countries’ 1994 peace treaty.
The statement said Israel had shared the results of a preliminary inquiry with Amman, and had ‘agreed to a Jordanian request to establish a joint Israeli-Jordanian team to complete the investigation.’
Zeiter was shot dead at 8am after a Israeli soldier pushed Zeiter to the floor, they started scuffling and Zeiter then stood up and shoved the soldier back.
The soldier turned and fired a shot that barely missed Zeiter. The soldier then unloaded his gun, shooting Zeiter three times in the chest leaving him dead on the floor.
Zeiter was buried in his home city of Nablus in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, with Jordan calling for the Israeli soldiers who shot him to be punished.
