Israeli forces killed six Palestinians today, including three members of a Gaza family in a botched air strike, a day after Palestinians said some of the worst violence in months could harm peace moves.
This bloodshed followed the launch of the most ambitious Middle East negotiations in seven years and a visit to Israel and the West Bank by US President George W. Bush to shore up efforts for a deal on Palestinian statehood within a year.
As Palestinians held a general strike over Israel's killing yesterday of 18 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them gunmen, an aircraft missile aimed at Islamic Jihad militants hit the wrong car and killed a 13-year-old boy, his father and an uncle.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead Islamic Jihad commander Walid Obeidi. A later air strike in Gaza killed two members of the Popular Resistance Committees militant group.
Israel vows to pursue a campaign to curb rocket and mortar bomb fire from the Gaza Strip and stop West Bank militants from launching attacks. Police said 47 rockets and mortar bombs were fired from the territory today, causing no casualties.