Israeli troops kill six in Gaza, West Bank

TEL AVIV - Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank early Saturday, an Israeli military spokeswoman and media reports said.

The military spokeswoman said Israeli soldiers patrolling the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip noticed several suspicious figures crawling toward the fence and opened fire.

When the figures still continued crawling, an aircraft was also called in to fire at them, and reported a direct hit.

She said evidence found at the scene revealed the fatalities had “hostile intentions” and Israel Radio reported the troops found weapons at the scene.

Reports from the northern West Bank, meanwhile, said Israeli troops entered Nablus and killed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

The military spokeswoman could not confirm this report. The shootings in Nablus come two days after gunmen shot dead an Israeli settler as he was driving in the northern West Bank, an attack for which the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is one of two groups which claimed responsibility.