MIDDLE EAST:Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, at least five of them militants, over the weekend, in the most serious flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence in months. The deaths drew a threat yesterday from a spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group that heads the Palestinian coalition government, to strike back through "all means of resistance".
In a raid yesterday, Israeli troops surrounded a house in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, and shot dead two members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in a gun battle, local residents said. An Israeli military source confirmed that troops killed the two men, saying both were wanted over their involvement in planning attacks that included attempted suicide bombings in Israel.
Several hours later Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank city of Ramallah, residents said. An Israeli military spokesman said an Israeli force was confronted by a crowd of dozens of Palestinians, some of whom were holding petrol bombs and others, knives. "They spotted a man about to throw a petrol bomb, fired at him and saw that he was hit," the spokesman said.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians - three armed militants, a policeman and a 17-year-old girl in or near the West Bank city of Jenin and a civilian riding in a car with Islamic Jihad gunmen in Gaza, residents and medical officials said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Arab lawmaker Azmi Bishara, under criminal investigation in Israel, resigned from the Knesset yesterday at the Israeli embassy in Cairo and said he would stay abroad for a time because of a "racist" climate.