Two Palestinians were shot dead and two others were wounded by Israeli fire in the West Bank village of Roujib early Sunday morning. Locals said soldiers fired at a house in the outskirts of the village, where 20-year-old Fawzi Dweikat was standing guard with a rifle in the wake of arson attacks on his family's cars.
Palestinian sources said a dispute between two families in the village had been raging in recent days. As part of the feud, several cars had been set on fire, and the rival families had exchanged fire. Local sources said Dweikat's mother, Nawal, 55, heard the shots and came to see what had happened, and was killed by Isreali fire. Dweikat's sister-in-law, 20, sustained serious injuries in this incident. A fourth person was also hurt in the shooting.
Elections
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the Palestinian legislative elections will be held on the 25th of January and uttered his opposition to any external interference in PLC elections. He also asserted that the elections and the aftermath formation of a government is a Palestinian issue and not an American one.
Speaking about Hamas participation in PLC lections Abbas said, in an interview with Al Jazeera TV on Saturday, the "democratic option could not be divided and whoever run successfully in the elections will become a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council but on the basis of Oslo accord and peace option."
"Hamas is now participating in the elections according to a certain basis, and not any other basis from the past," Abbas said in the interview. "If Hamas wants to participate in the government, it has to abide by this basis ... upon which we (the Palestinian leadership) returned (from exile) to Palestine in 1994, based on the Oslo accords," he said.
"We returned on the basis of the Oslo accords which rule the legislative council and all the agreements that took place afterwards between us and the Israelis, and subsequently the roadmap," Abbas said. "So whoever wants to participate in this government has to do so on this basis," he noted.
