Two Palestinians killed in W. Bank as Rice optimistic

A Palestinian was shot dead early Friday by Israeli forces in Hebron. One Israeli policeman was lightly wounded by a firebomb hurled at him in this incident.

On Thursday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops near Nablus.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came on Friday said she saw promise in a Gaza Strip truce. "This is the kind of thing that takes time," she told reporters late on Thursday after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "You don't expect great leaps forward," she added, according to Reuters.

But Rice said she saw a "little opening" for reviving the peace process after a truce was struck last weekend in Gaza Strip and she was also optimistic following a "positive" speech by Olmert in which he reached out for peace if certain conditions were met.