Israel kills one Palestinian in Gaza

GAZA, Oct 13 (Reuters) Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian woman in a Gaza Strip village today where soldiers and militants clashed, residents said.

Palestinian doctors said the woman was shot by an Israeli sniper while she was standing outside her home in southern Gaza.

An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli forces opened fire at armed Palestinians in the area and hit one of them.

Israel killed nine Palestinians, at least three of them Hamas militants, in Gaza yesterday. Israel has been pressing a nearly four-month offensive in Gaza after a soldier was abducted in a cross-border raid.

There was also sporadic fighting overnight between rival gunmen loyal to Hamas and Fatah in northern Gaza after a local Hamas leader and a member of a Fatah-dominated intelligence service were killed in separate incidents yesterday.

The worst internal fighting in a decade has stoked fears of civil war after talks between President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas over a unity government broke down.

Reuters BDP GC1134