Israeli soldiers kill two Palestinians

Hebron (West Bank), June 6: Israel killed two Palestinian men today, one during a raid in the occupied West Bank, and another in an air strike in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and security sources said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed both incidents.

In the latest attack, Israel fired at two armed Palestinians in Gaza ''who were spotted planting explosives,'' the spokeswoman said.

Earlier, troops opened fire on a Palestinian man who tried to assault them during an arrest raid in the West Bank town of Hebron, the spokeswoman said.

A Palestinian security source told Reuters that soldiers came to a house in Hebron before dawn and shot a man who answered the door, killing him, then shot his wife, wounding her.

Medics said the man killed in Hebron was 67. Three other men in the home were also wounded by gunfire, the source said.

In Gaza, medics said a Palestinian was killed and another was wounded by an Israeli air strike or tank shell fired in the area.

Israel has stepped up raids against suspected militants in the West Bank and Gaza, in response to an increasing number of rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli towns in the past few weeks.

Reuters>