Two Palestinian militants were killed in separate attacks on Israel on Thursday. There was no report of Israeli casualties in the attacks.
The first incident took place when a militant attacked an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities said they found the body of an Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza with grenades, a bomb and an assault rifle nearby. Islamic Jihad, which the United States has on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, claimed responsibility for the incident.
The second attack took place outside the West Bank city of Nablus. Two Palestinian gunmen tried to attack Jewish worshippers heading to visit a religious shrine known as Joseph's Tomb. Israeli soldiers fired on the two gunmen and one of them was killed.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group affiliated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party indicated that the gunmen was a member of their group. The 16-year-old was on Israel's wanted list for his participation in the violence of the second intifada.
This marks yet another disruption of the delicate truce agreed to between PA President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month. The ceasefire is designed to help make the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip a safe one. The withdrawal is scheduled to begin on August 15.
