Israelis kill Palestinian

The Israeli army says that troops in the West Bank have shot dead a Palestinian man.

The 73-year-old victim, Mahmud Assad Abdallah, was the traditional chief, or mukhtar, of the village of Surda, near Ramallah - a town under joint Israeli-Palestinian control.

An army statement said that the troops had come under fire from the roof of a house and fired back.

But Mr Abdallah's son said that his father had opened fire at suspected thieves in his garden.

Soldiers in disguise

He added that his father regularly slept on the roof to keep an eye on the neighbourhood.

An Israeli army statement said that an army medical team treated Mr Abdallah immediately and took him to hospital, but he died on the way.

None of the Israeli troops was wounded.

The Israelis, disguised as Palestinians, were patrolling the village in search of a suspect from the militant Islamic organisation, Hamas, whom they later arrested.

Large Israeli reinforcements have now been sent to the village.

Investigation

An Israeli army official, Colonel Gal Hirsch, said that the Israelis and Palestinians had been working together since the collapse of the Camp David peace summit to prevent violence breaking out.

An Arab-Israeli member of parliament, Ahmed Tibi, who knew the Abdullah family, called the incident "a cold-blooded killing and a provocation".

He said that Mr Abdullah was the uncle of a Palestinian representative to Washington.

Colonel Hirsh said that an investigation had been opened into the cause of the incident.