Violence

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The army killed a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and killed five others as six Kassams struck Israel over the weekend. Palestinians on Saturday accused the IDF of killing two civilians in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF said it was unaware of the incident, but that it had opened fire at two Palestinians earlier in the day who had suspiciously approached the Gaza security fence and that soldiers opened fire only after the two ignored orders and warning shots to stop. On Friday, IDF troops shot and killed two Palestinian youths near the Gaza security fence. The IDF said that Ahmed Abu Zeibeida and Zaher al-Majdalawi, both 13, were acting in "suspicious manner" and had planted an object next to the fence. The boys, Palestinians said, had told their families they were going to the beach. A third boy was wounded and taken to an Israeli hospital in moderate condition. "They are only kids... they were executed," said a brother of one of the boys, Talaat al-Majdawli. He said that his brother Zaher sold sweets outside their home to earn money for the family. This Friday, the first of the summer vacation, he asked his father to go to the beach instead, his brother said. In the West Bank meanwhile, the IDF opened fire at an armed Palestinian in a refugee camp near Nablus and killed him. Also Friday, Fawzi Abu Mustafa, a top Islamic Jihad terrorist in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli Air Force missile strike as he rode on his motorcycle in southern Gaza. The IDF said that Abu Mustafa was responsible for a number of attacks against IDF soldiers and Israelis including shooting and roadside bomb attacks. The Friday strike was the first targeted killing carried out by the IDF since it received permission from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to renew the controversial policy last week. Abu Mustafa has been wanted by Israel since 2003 when he was appointed the head of an Islamic Jihad terror cell in Khan Yunis. He was involved in setting up an Israeli-Arab terror cell inside Israel as well as sending a suicide bomber to a settlement in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem. AP contributed to this report.