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Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen©Associated PressOctober 5, 2002 JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager and gravely wounded a 12-year-old in West Bank violence Friday, while police fired stun grenades in the main mosque compound in Jerusalem after a few Muslim worshipers threw rocks that fell on Jews praying at the Western Wall below. Fifteen-year-old Mohammed Zeid was standing outside his house watching other youths hurl rocks at an Israeli army patrol in the village of Nazlat Zeid when the troops opened fire, witnesses said. They said Zeid was hit in the thigh by a stray bullet. He died in a hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israeli military said that troops seeking to impose a curfew on the village were attacked by rioters and that the troops fired in the air to disperse them. It confirmed that a youth was killed. In the city of Nablus, hospital officials said 12-year-old Ibrahim Madani was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Witnesses said troops shot him near the Askar refugee camp, where he was walking in breach of an Israeli military curfew. The army said it was unaware of that incident, but it said an Israeli soldier was seriously wounded by Palestinian gunfire in Nablus. In Jerusalem, police said about 50 officers entered the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the most hotly contested site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The police fired stun grenades to disperse several dozen youths who had thrown rocks toward officers at an entrance to the compound. Some rocks fell on Jews worshiping at the Western Wall below. No injuries or damage were reported and police said Islamic authorities calmed the crowd and Muslim worshipers began to leave the area -- the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam. Both Arabs and Israelis have acted with relative restraint at the complex in recent months, despite an uprising by Palestinians against Israel that began Sept. 28, 2000, with Arab protests over a visit to the site by now-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. At Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, adviser Nabil Abu Rdeineh called for Israel to be pressed to obey a recent Security Council resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities, Palestinian officials said Finance Minister Salam Fayad would leave for Washington Sunday for talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, members of Congress and international financial officials.
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