Israeli forces kill boy, Palestinian militants

TULKARM, West Bank, Aug 24 (Reuters) Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old Israeli Arab boy and a Palestinian gunman today during a raid in a village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian ambulance crews said.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers crossed into the territory and killed two Palestinian gunmen who had opened fired at them near the border fence, an army spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv.

Commenting on the West Bank raid, she said troops that entered the village of Seida, near the town of Tulkarm, killed an armed man and wounded another in exchanges of fire.

Asked about the death of the boy, the spokeswoman said: ''We know another person was killed.'' She said she had no immediate information on his identity.

Palestinian ambulance crews said the gunman in Seida belonged to the Islamic Jihad group and the boy was an Israeli Arab who was visiting relatives in the village.

The army spokeswoman said Israeli forces found two Kalashnikov rifles, military vests and ammunition during the West Bank operation and that an Israeli paramilitary policeman was wounded and treated at the scene.

Israel says raids against Palestinian militants help to foil attacks against its citizens. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, where the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway, say such operations harm chances for peacemaking.

Israel recently stopped pursuing 178 Fatah militants in the occupied territory in a bid to boost Abbas following the violent takeover by Hamas Islamists of the Gaza Strip in June.

REUTERS AK BST0032