Gaza shootings jeopardize truce
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4428351.stm
Israeli soldiers have shot dead three Palestinian teenagers on the edge of a refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Witnesses say they were killed trying to retrieve a football in a no-go area near the Egypt border; the Israeli army says it is investigating the report.
It is the most serious such incident since Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared a ceasefire in February.
Hours later, Palestinians fired mortars at Jewish settlements in Gaza.
The army said the mortars landed without causing any injuries.
'Warning shots'
Witnesses said a group of boys came under fire when they tried to retrieve a football.
"The kids ran after it [the ball], and that's when we heard gunfire," Ali Abu Zeib, a 22-year-old Rafah resident, told the Associated Press news agency.
Reports said at least two of the dead boys were 14 and 15 years old.
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says the youths had approached a zone along Gaza's border with Egypt, which is occupied and heavily defended by Israeli troops.
He says Israeli military sources say that the youngsters had entered an area along the frontier that is strictly forbidden to Palestinians.
The sources say that warning shots were ignored and then the teenagers were fired at, our correspondent adds.
Saeed Siyam, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the deaths of the teenagers in Gaza would be avenged.
"The Palestinian people cannot stay silent in the face of this crime and it cannot pass without punishment," AP quoted him as saying.
Following the killings, Palestinian militants fired at least five mortars at Jewish settlements in Gaza.
It is the first time militants have fired rockets at Jewish targets since February when Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered security forces to prevent such attacks.
The violence comes amid heightened tension ahead of a planned mass rally on Sunday on the disputed Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif.
The demonstration is being organised by Israelis opposed to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
Palestinian militant groups have threatened a violent response if protesters reach the al-Aqsa Mosque on the hilltop compound.
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