The Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli troops near Rafah

Additional Reporting By Mohammad Yassin, IOL Correspondent

GAZA, December 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli occupation forces gunned down a Palestinian teenager Wednesday, December 17, as Hamas military wing announced blasting an Israeli military watchtower in Rafah.

Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades asserted, in a statement a copy of which obtained by IslamOnline.net, that its anti-terror unit dynamited one of the Israeli watchtowers near the Palestinian-Egyptian borders which was guarded by Israeli specials forces.

"Our fighters managed to penetrate the enemy line and blow up the tower with explosive charges," added the statement, asserting the whole operation was videotaped to document the damage and Israeli causalities.

The Israeli occupation army had reported that two large devices went off near the Hirdon army post but claimed there were no causalities.

Qassam Brigades maintained that the operation came to "answer massacres carried out by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people."

It also confirmed that resistance and Jihad remain "the only way to restore the full rights of the Palestinian people."

Teenager Killed

In another development, Palestinian medical sources confirmed that a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli fire in the impoverished Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

Mustafa al-Hams, had been fatally hit in the head when Israeli troops opened fire towards the camp.

The latest death brings the number of people killed since the beginning of the Intifada against the Israeli occupation in September 2000 to 3,647 - including 2,727 Palestinians and 854 Israelis, according to an AFP count.