Roundup: Palestinian-Israeli violence flares amid mounting tension

Palestinian militants resumed attacks on Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts in the Gaza Strip Saturday after Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian teens in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

Palestinian medics said the three were Ashraf Musa, Kamal Ghannam, and Hassan Abu Zeid, who had been critically wounded and died of wounds at the hospital.

There had been a complete calmness in the Gaza Strip since 13 Palestinian factions and militant groups agreed to observe a one- year calmness and a halt to attacks against Israel in mid-March.

However, the calmness had been broken when Israeli soldiers stationed on the borderline between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt opened intensive gunfire at a group of Palestinian teens.

Palestinian witnesses and medics said that the attack occurred when the teens were playing football in the refugee camp of Rafah.

However, an Israeli army spokesman said that the three were smugglers.

Witnesses and Palestinian security sources in Rafah denied the allegation, saying that the three are not smugglers and they are playing football.

Following the killing, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) vowed to resume attacks on Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts.

Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, claimed responsibility for firing dozens of homemade rockets at Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts in the Gaza Strip.

The group said in a leaflet that its militants fired 23 homemade rockets and mortar shells at Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts in the Gaza Strip to avenge the killing of three Palestinians.

Sa'eed Seyam, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters that "this criminal act and this massacre indicate that the Israeli occupation forces do not respect a mutual ceasefire on which we had all agreed."

"As long as Israel continues its aggression, it should bear responsibility and consequences," he said.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing as "a clear violation of the declared ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians."

"The Palestinian National Authority will never accept the bloodshed of our people and our children. We can never accept the fact that our children are shot," Abbas said in a statement.

The shooting incident came at a time when the Palestinian- Israeli tension has been mounting following a decision by an Israeli right-wing group to visit al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest in Islam.

The compound where Al-Aqsa Mosque is built is called by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. While, Jews call it the Temple Mount and regard it as Judaism's holiest site.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the mosque in September 2000 triggered a new wave of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Media reports said that thousands of right-wingers plan to storm the flashpoint site on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua