One Palestinian was killed and dozens were injured Thursday as clashes continued in the tumultuous West Bank and Gaza Strip after heavy Israel bombings overnight that left a German national dead and a dozen people hurt.
Israeli soldiers shot Samer al-Hudour, 18, in the heart at the al-Fawwar refugee camp near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, medical officials said.
His death brought to 234 the number killed since the Palestinian uprising broke out on September 28th, most of them Arabs.
Sporadic clashes also erupted elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where Palestinians were burying eight people killed in Wednesday's violence and two who died overnight, including the German, the first foreigner killed in the chaos.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot 22 Palestinians with live ammunition, but hospital officials said that none of the injuries were considered life threatening.
Soldiers also shot and wounded 15 Palestinians at the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, a frequent flashpoint during the seven-week Palestinian intifada or uprising.
At Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot seven Palestinian stone-throwers.
As darkness fell, Israel also resumed its policy of shelling Arab villages, most often in response to Palestinian gunfire.
Tanks fired on the Arab village of Al-Abeyat near Bethlehem, setting fire to at least one house and wounding two Palestinians there.
The shelling came less than 24 hours after helicopter gunships launched heavy raids on five Palestinian towns and cities, mostly targeting sites related to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's political and militia faction, Fatah.
In the northern West Bank Thursday, clashes broke out in Jenin, Qalqilya and in two Arab villages near Nablus, which left two Palestinians hospitalized.
In Nablus, some 5,000 Palestinians held a peaceful march in the center of the Palestinian-run city to mark Arafat's symbolic declaration of independence 12 years ago.
In the West Bank town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, hundreds of Palestinians turned out to bury German doctor Harry Fischer, who was killed during the overnight Israeli helicopter raids.
The Israeli army said its combat helicopters had fired at buildings in Beit Jala in what it described as a reprisal for shots fired at the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the border between annexed east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Seven Palestinians were also injured during the Beit Jala raid.
In Jericho, a hospital official said three Palestinians were injured by shrapnel when an Israeli Apache helicopter attacked a position belonging to Palestinian security.
The helicopter gunship also targetted a weapons depot used by Palestinian security throughout the West Bank, a Palestinian security official told AFP without providing further details.
In the northern West Bank, helicopters bombarded Fatah positions in Tulkarem and Salfit, hitting the home of a 27-year-old Palestinian man who had to have his left leg amputated as a result of his injury, hospital officials said.
Also overnight, a Palestinian boy died of wounds suffered when he was shot by Israeli soldiers in clashes at Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.
Jihad Abu Shahmeh, 12, was hit in the head with a bullet on Wednesday -- HEBRON (AFP)
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