Israeli troops raided a West Bank village in search of wanted militants, sparking a firefight that left two Palestinians dead, including an 11-year-old boy, Palestinian officials said.
In other violence on Friday, the Israeli army said it killed two Palestinian gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip after they opened fire at a border patrol.
Mahmoud Ibrahim Karnawi, 11, was shot after Israeli troops moved into the village of Saida in the northern West Bank, witnesses said.
The troops were trying to arrest his older half-brother, a wanted Islamic Jihad militant, and came under fire as they approached the family's home, setting off a gunfight, they said.
Neighbors said the boy was inside the home at the time of the shooting and hit in the crossfire.
Hospital officials in the nearby town of Tulkarem confirmed the death.
Tariq Mulhem, an Islamic Jihad militant not related to the boy, also was killed, the officials said.
Relatives said the boy lived in Israel with his parents.
The family was visiting relatives in the West Bank at the time of the shooting, the relatives said.
The army said its forces came under fire during an operation, sparking an exchange of fire in which two Palestinians were killed.
One of the dead was a gunman, but there were no details on the identity of the second, it said.
A member of the Israeli paramilitary border police was lightly wounded and treated at the scene, the army said, adding that troops confiscated two AK-47 rifles and ammunition.
Meanwhile in Gaza, the army said it killed two Palestinian militants who fired at soldiers on the Israeli side of the border.
The troops entered Gaza and shot the gunmen after a brief chase, the army said.
Palestinian medical officials said they were aware of the shootings, but could not immediately send ambulances to retrieve the bodies.
DEMONSTRATION
Also in Gaza, Hamas security agents clashed with supporters of the rival Fatah movement on Friday, firing into the air and beating journalists covering a demonstration against the Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip.
It was the second time in recent weeks that Hamas has scuffled with Fatah protesters, a signal of possible cracks in the Islamic group's two-month-old takeover of Gaza. Harassment of journalists and political opponents has grown increasingly common in the coastal strip.
The demonstrators gathered after weekly Muslim prayers in an open square in Gaza City organized by Fatah activists who say they have not been welcome in mosques since the Hamas takeover.
The protesters threw stones and bottles at a former Fatah security compound now used as headquarters of the Hamas paramilitary police. Hamas men fired guns over the heads of hundreds of demonstrators.
When several Hamas security men roughed up a Reuters TV cameraman and tried to confiscate his camera, protesters surrounded the Hamas men, beat them to the ground and prevented the journalist's arrest.
The Hamas men also detained a photographer for Agence France-Presse and a cameraman for the Russian TV channel Russia Today, along with two other reporters working for local news outlets.
They also broke a TV camera belonging to the Arabic-language TV network al-Arabiya.
All four detained journalists were quickly released and got their equipment back, Hamas officials and witnesses said.
Journalists later staged a protest against the crackdown.
`INCITING CHAOS''
Hamas militia spokesman Islam Shahwan accused a small group of Fatah activists of "inciting chaos and bringing back the situation to lawlessness."
He said Hamas "will not allow the situation to be repeated" and promised to arrest those behind the protest.
Hamas says it is willing to tolerate dissent, but has cracked down on the remnants of Fatah in Gaza, including breaking up private parties earlier this month where people were singing pro-Fatah songs.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not