Israeli troops kill three Palestinians in sweep

Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians during a sweep for militants in the West Bank yesterday, drawing angry funeral chants aimed not just at Israel but also Palestinian leaders accused of failure.

Two of the men were shot in the West Bank city of Nablus, where Israeli soldiers have killed at least 17 Palestinians in the past three weeks in clashes with gunmen and youths throwing stones and lobbing concrete blocks from high buildings.

An army spokesman said a unit arresting a group of wanted men in Nablus shot and killed a Palestinian threatening them with a pistol and a second man hiding in a bush who refused to surrender. He was later found to be unarmed. Another man who fired at soldiers was killed in the city of Tulkarm.

Palestinian officials said the militants in Nablus were shot at close range and after one of them had already been grabbed by an attack dog. Medics said his leg was badly bitten.

"I don't find any justification for killing them. It is just more military pressure in order to make the Palestinians lower their political demands," Mahmoud el-Aloul, the Palestinian Authority's governor of Nablus, told Reuters.

Israeli troops say the operations around Nablus have rooted out militants bent on attacking the Jewish state, but Palestinians charge that the raids show Israel is not serious about reviving peace negotiations.

The army said 19 wanted Palestinians were arrested overnight in the West Bank, 11 of them in Nablus.

Hundreds of people followed a funeral cortege for the two Nablus militants through the ancient hilly city, battered by rain and wind. Gunmen fired volleys at the graveside.

Some vowed revenge for the dead, who belonged to the militant al-Awda Brigades linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

But others also chanted slogans against the Palestinian Authority, particularly criticising moderate Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, accusing him of not doing enough to help victims of violence or to stand up to the Israelis.

"Listen, listen Qurie," they called. "The blood of martyrs is not for sale."

Mr Qurie took office in November amid hopes he could meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and revive a US-backed 'road map' meant to lead to a Palestinian state by 2005. But the peace plan has been bogged down by violence and inaction.

The two premiers have still not met and neither side has met earlier pledges. Israel has warned that if negotiations fail it will enact unilateral partition measures, taking chunks of the West Bank.

More than 2,300 Palestinians and 840 Israelis have died in three years of conflict.