Palestinian civilian killed as Israelis shell southern Gaza

May 4, 2008, 8:42 GMT

Gaza - A Palestinian civilian was killed and several were wounded Sunday in Israeli shelling of a house in the southeast of the Gaza Strip, medical staff and witnesses said.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, head of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, told reporters the civilian was killed and six were wounded east of Khan Younis.

Earlier Sunday, three Hamas militants and a Palestinian man were wounded during an Israeli army incursion in the southeast of the Gaza Strip, witnesses and security sources said.

They said an Israeli aircraft fired a rocket at a gathering of militants in Khouza'a town to the east of Khan Younis.

Earlier, an Israeli sniper shot at a Palestinian man in his house, critically hitting him in the head. A spokesman for Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said the man was 20-year-old Mohammed al-Najjar.

A number of Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled in the area after midnight and snipers positioned themselves on high rooftops after occupying at least four houses, the residents said.

Protected by tank machinegun fire, the bulldozers levelled and uprooted dozens of olive trees and other crops. Palestinian fighters exchanged fire with the soldiers.

The incursion came as Palestinian factions accepted an Egyptian proposal aimed at achieving a ceasefire with Israel.

It calls on Israel to end its military operations in Gaza as well as a more than 10-month blockade on the enclave. The proposal is to be presented to Israel next week.

However, two Palestinian factions, the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, have expressed reservations.