NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party in a raid early Wednesday, members of the armed group said. The shooting also wounded a senior militant from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the group said. The wounded man, Sufian Kandeel, had recently signed a deal granting him amnesty from Israel, but had not fulfilled several conditions, group spokesman Mahdi Abu Ghazaleh said.
Israel's army said it was checking into the report.
Israel offered the amnesty to about 200 West Bank militants, mostly from Fatah, over the summer as part of efforts to bolster Abbas in his rivalry with the Islamic militant group Hamas. Under the deal, the militants agreed to sit in a Palestinian jail for three months and surrender their weapons. Kandeel had agreed not to harm Israelis, but did not accept the other conditions, said Abu Ghazaleh, who also signed the amnesty deal.
"We signed the list but will not go along with the Israeli conditions and we said ... 'We will not sit in jail and not give in our weapons because they are
Witnesses said the Israeli soldiers entered Nablus' Old City, known as a militant stronghold, disguised in Palestinian security forces uniforms and carrying Kalashnikov rifles typical of the forces, witnesses said.
They spoke Arabic to passers-by, asking "how are you," and raising no suspicions as they took positions on rooftops, the witnesses said.
Cool move.
The troops shot toward about a dozen Palestinian militants, some of whom were armed, and wounded Kandeel, who was unarmed, Abu Ghazaleh said. As the militants tried to evacuate Kandeel, the troops shot again, killing another unarmed man, he said.
Members of the group had said earlier that the two men were armed, but Abu Ghazaleh, who was at the scene of the shooting, said after that they were not.
"Yeah, we were minding our own business, and they started shooting at us with depleted uranium rounds, for no reason at all! My aunt fatima has kept one the round, she'll show it to you."