Israeli Fire Kills Boy, 8, During Clashes in Nablus

An 8-year-old Palestinian boy was killed today when Israeli soldiers fired at crowds of children throwing stones as they returned from school in the West Bank city of Nablus.

It was one of several clashes today in Nablus, in which seven people were reported wounded by fire from Israeli tanks and guns, as soldiers worked to impose the continuing curfew there.

A military spokesman said tonight that the soldiers returned fire after three unidentified "explosive devices" as well as several firebombs had been thrown at them as they sat in a jeep. At least one Palestinian witness said that the boy did not seem to be among the stone throwers, and that he had been hit more than 100 yards from the Jeep.

The boy was reportedly shot in the chest and died shortly afterward at a hospital. In separate clashes, two other Palestinians were seriously wounded; a 28-year-old man was hit in the head and a 39-year-old woman in the chest, reportedly by tank fire.

The clashes underscored the tension around the West Bank, as the Israeli military stepped up patrols and tightened curfews in the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Thursday in which 11 people were killed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/international/middleeast/26MIDE.html