House demolitions are an ongoing form of Israeli aggression against Palestinians

JENIN, West Bank, January 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian was killed Tuesday, January 28, by Israeli gunfire in the autonomous West Bank town of Jenin, hours after three others, including a teenage girl, were killed and nine wounded in Gaza City.

In Jenin, Palestinian security sources said 28-year-old Rashid Arabi was killed by a shot to the head when Israeli occupation soldiers in a tank opened fire on him while he was standing right outside his home, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

An Israeli military source said the army was searching the town to arrest wanted Palestinians.

Palestinian sources said some 20 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles raided Jenin earlier, as Israelis began voting in general elections which are widely expected to return Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to power.

The Israeli troops met strong resistance from armed Palestinian resistance activists and there was a heavy exchange of fire. There was no immediate word of any victims.

The Israeli army also imposed a curfew on the autonomous Palestinian town of Kalkiliya in the northern West Bank, the sources said.

The West Bank and Gaza Strip were also sealed off Tuesday as Israelis went to the polls in a general election.

In northern Gaza early Tuesday, three Palestinians, a teenage girl included, were killed and nine other people injured in a blast, caused by Israeli missiles, Palestinian sources said.

“Israeli helicopters targeted a house, killing three people,” a Palestinian security official said, adding that eight people were wounded in the blast and five houses destroyed.

Medical sources said they had received the bodies of two men and a teenage girl, and body parts belonging to another man.

They named two of the dead as Mohamed Salama Shahine, 30, and Sabrine Salama Shaine, 15, and said that nine people were moderately injured in the blast, mostly from shrapnel.

Palestinian security officials named the third victim as Mohamed Al-Atul, who was in his twenties.

Shahine was a well-known activist of the resistance Islamic group Hamas, and the teenage girl was related to him, but it was not initially clear how, they said. Atul was also known as a Hamas activist.

Palestinian security sources initially said they did not know what caused the explosion, while adding that Israeli helicopter gun ships were firing machineguns in Beit Hanun, which lies three kilometres (nearly two miles) to the east.

They later blamed the attack, which took place in the Beit Lahia area at around midnight, squarely on Israel.

The building, which security sources said was a civilian home, was completely destroyed and heavy damage was also caused to surrounding structures, they said.

The attack followed a large-scale military incursion into Gaza City by the Israelis Sunday, when 14 Palestinians were killed, and more than 100 wounded.