GAZA CITY, Jan 3 (AFP) - A member of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas was killed Monday while trying to fire a rocket towards Israeli forces operating in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses and medical sources said.
Mohammed Yussef al-Ghandur, 22, was blown to pieces when the device exploded prematurely as he was about to launch the missile in the Beit Hanun area.
The Israeli army withdrew to the outskirts of Beit Hanun on Monday after staging an incursion into the area on Sunday as part of a bid to prevent the firing of rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The latest death brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising to 4,661, including 3,616 Palestinians and 970 Israelis.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian youngsters were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, according to medics.
An 11-year-old schoolboy as hit in the shoulder while he was playing in a courtyard at a school run by the UN refugee agency while a 16-year-old girl was wounded while she was walking in the street.
01/03/2005 13:15 GMT - AFP