Elderly woman among toll of 5 in Gaza

GAZA - Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in separate incidents yesterday, including the stepmother of a militant who was crushed to death when Israeli forces razed their Gaza home, Palestinian sources said.

They said the elderly woman had apparently not heard warnings to leave the building.

Palestinian security sources and medics said Kamla Saeed was found dead in the debris of the home.

"She was partly deaf and apparently she was not aware of what was happening," said Khaled Saeed, one of Kamla's stepsons.

Israelis shot dead Baha Saeed, a militant from President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, two years ago after he killed two Israelis.

Israeli sources said soldiers searched the house before destroying it.

Early yesterday, Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire on the edge of a Gaza City suburb, killing two Palestinian medical staff from a hospital in the area, hospital officials said. The Army was checking the report.

In the West Bank, witnesses said a Palestinian policeman was shot as he and others fled their base in Qalqilya during an Army raid.

Israeli military sources said he ignored orders to halt.

A Palestinian youth was also shot dead by troops during a stone-throwing clash in Nablus, witnesses said. An Israeli source said the youth was armed and shot at soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's tough line on the 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence helped his right-wing Likud party to a resounding win in polls last month.

Sharon has accused Arafat's Palestinian Authority of orchestrating and financing the violence, a charge denied by Palestinian officials.

The European Union's anti-fraud office said yesterday it opened an inquiry into allegations that funds donated to the authority were siphoned off by corrupt officials or used to finance attacks on Israelis in the uprising.

The EU is the biggest aid donor to the Palestinian Authority, channelling €10 million ($19.6 million) each month to help to pay public sector salaries.

Members of the European Parliament had separately demanded an inquiry into the use of those funds, but the EU Commission has denied the cash was misused.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: The Middle East