Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in protest

Another protester gravely wounded during a violent demonstration against the Gaza Strip military campaign.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
tear gas niilin 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
tear gas niilin 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
IDF troops shot and killed a Palestinian man and seriously wounded another in the West Bank Sunday during a violent protest against Israel's major military offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The fatality was the first in the West Bank since Israel launched its air campaign against Hamas security installations on Saturday. The deadly late-afternoon protest in the village of Ni'lin near Ramallah turned violent after troops stationed in the area were attacked with a hail of rocks, the military said. After the soldiers were unable to halt the barrage with crowd control measures, they used live ammunition to quell the protest. It was not immediately clear Sunday why the security personnel did not have sufficient anti-rioting equipment, and an army spokesman said the incident was being investigated by military authorities. The Palestinian victim who was hit by a bullet in his chest was identified by a Palestinian medic as 22-year-old Arafat Khawaja. The village in question is the focus of a long-running dispute between Palestinians and Israelis over land appropriations for the construction of the security barrier. Meanwhile, Arabs teens in east Jerusalem continued to pelt police with stones in sporadic violent protests in Arab sections of the city, police said. On Monday evening, a tourist bus was damaged in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz after it was hit by a stone thrown by an Arab rioter, police said. There were no injuries reported in the incident. More than three dozen Arabs suspected of rioting have been arrested in east Jerusalem over the last 48 hours.