Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian youths in the Gaza Strip Saturday. Two of the boys, aged 14, were identified as Mussa and Khaled Ghanam. An additional Palestinian youth was badly injured in the incident, near Rafah's Tel a-Sultan neighborhood. The wounded youth underwent surgery at a Rafah hospital and later died of his wounds.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting. His office issued a statement saying he was "shocked.""The president severely condemns the killing, and considers it a violation of the truce that we agreed on" in Egypt on Feb. 8, Abbas said. "We will not accept our children being killed in this way."
Shortly after news of the shooting spread, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the movement's armed wing was no longer bound by a de facto ceasefire with Israel.
"The Jerusalem Brigades are free of any commitment to calm after the Israeli shedding of Palestinian youths' blood," said Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Abdallah. "This means that now we are no longer committed to truce."
But a senior group official was quick to deny the calm has ended, despite the shooting. "So far, the Palestinian factions have not declared an end to the calm ... but they are studying the issue anew because of continued Zionist aggression," Islamic Jihad chief Mohammed al-Hindi told a news conference.
Following the incidents, Palestinians fired scores of mortar shells at Gush Katif settlements and Israeli outposts in the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestinian sources, the youths were playing on the outskirts of the Rafah refugee camp, several hundred meters from the frontier. Occupation forces opened fire on them from the south.
