A member of Palestinian Fateh movement wanted by Israel was gunned down Tuesday by Israeli soldiers as sporadic violence erupted in the West Bank, raising the death toll further in almost 11 weeks of bloodshed.
Youssef Ahmed Abu Suwai, 28, was shot with 22 bullets to his head and other parts of his body while he was standing outside his home in a West Bank village near Bethlehem, the Israeli radio reported.
According to AFP, Fateh sources said Israel had been hunting for Abu Suwai for five years, suspecting him of smuggling arms and at one time he was placed in the protection of Palestinian preventive security.
The Bethlehem branch of Fateh accused the army of assassinating Abu Suwai, said the agency.
"We will respond to this crime by attacking soldiers and settlers," it said in a statement. "(Israeli army chief Shaul) Mofaz and Israel's military leaders will pay the price."
Israeli forces have already assassinated Hussein Ebayyat and Mahmoud Youssef Moghrabi, 25, who was killed by Israeli troops in the early hours of Sunday on a bypass road used by Jewish settlers near the village of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem.
Four members of Fateh youth were hit by a tank bomb last month and died instantly.
On Monday, a member Palestinian group Islamic Jihad who was released from jail six weeks ago was shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Nablus. Several thousand joined his funeral Tuesday.
On Tuesday also, two women settlers were injured by Palestinian fire at Morag settlement in Gaza, while a Jewish settler was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank earlier in the day.
The man from the Maale Efraim settlement southeast of Nablus, was shot in the chest after his car came under fire from a Palestinian vehicle as he was driving along a road near the Jordanian border, they said.
A heavy exchange of fire erupted Tuesday evening at Martyrs Junction, known as Nezarin to the Israelis; one Palestinian was injured, according to Maariv.
The Jerusalem Post said the intense firefight between the army and armed Palestinian at Netzarim continued after Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a community center in the settlement earlier Tuesday.
One of the bullets hit a teachers desk in a computer class.
The teacher and students were in the classroom at the time of the shooting, the Post said – (Several Sources)
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