The shootings brought the Palestinian death toll since the outbreak of Intifada to  2,766 (AFP)

NABLUS, West Bank, January 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians in the West Bank late Tuesday, January 6, as a new report revealed that none of the Israeli soldiers indicted for killing innocent Palestinians has been jailed since the beginning of Intifada.

In Tulkarem, some ten Israeli jeeps thrust into the refugee camp drawing clashes with resistance fighters, Palestinian security officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hisham Khrewesh, 20, was killed during the shootout, while an Israeli army spokesman claimed the Hamas activist had first shot at Israeli troops who just returned fire.

In Nablus, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians at the end of an 11-day incursion which had already claimed the lives of six people and left a trail of destruction.

Ibrahim Attari, a member of the Al-Awda Brigades -- a local offshoot of the mainstream Fatah group -- was gunned down in the western part of the town.

The other "martyr" was identified by Palestinian officials as Abdelafu Qassas.

Israeli sources confirmed both deaths, claiming that Attari had been killed after brandishing a pistol at soldiers, while Qassas had been shot while hiding in a bush.

Palestinian minister in charge of negotiations, Saeb Erakat, said the latest deaths were proof that the Israeli government was trying to sabotage the peace process.

"The Israeli aggression, especially its assassination policy and the incursions, is part of a military plan by the (Israeli Premier Ariel) Sharon government which aims to destroy any chance of peace and implementation of the roadmap," he added.

"Israel must take responsibility for the outcome of this escalation," stressed the Palestinian official.

The new deaths brought the death toll from the nearly 40-month-old Intifada against the Israeli occupation to 3,692 people, including 2,766 Palestinians and 860 Israelis.

Eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces during a massive raid in southern Gaza a few days ago.

No Jail

In the meantime, a new report found that Israeli army has opened dozens of investigations into the killing of Palestinians by its troops since the start of the Intifada but not a single soldier has ever been jailed.

No less than 72 investigations were opened but only 13 soldiers were indicted, said a report by the military prosecution quoted in Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

The indictments were followed up at best by suspended sentences and in some cases, verdicts have not yet been issued, two years after the incidents, the report added.

A colonel indicted for ordering the killing of a Palestinian woman, in her 90s, has still not been sentenced.

Two Israeli human rights watchdogs urged the Israeli Supreme Court last week to force the army to launch an investigation every time an unarmed Palestinian is killed.

The army responded that investigations are often opened but cannot be expected to do so with every case because the Intifada is an "armed conflict".

Palestinians and Israeli rights groups confirm that many local inhabitants were killed in unprovoked Israeli shootings at random in occupied territories.

According to the rights groups, no less than 410 Palestinians under 18 have been killed since the start of the Intifada.

Among them were 11 infants, 90 children aged between three and 12 and 304 teenagers between 13 and 17. Ninety women over 20 have also been killed.

Last week, an Israeli soldier was arrested over a shooting in the Gaza Strip in April that left a British peace activist brain dead.

Haaretz said the report coincided with the jailing of five Israelis who refuse to serve in the occupied territories and have already spent up to a year in custody.

On December 22, thirteen members of Israeli army's most elite commando unit publicly refused to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, dismissing Israeli operations there as oppressive as immoral.

The move came three months after 27 reserve and active duty airmen signed a letter  addressed to Sharon, refusing to carry out "immoral and illegal" raids on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.