Israelis kill Palestinian near Gaza settlement

The Israeli army shot and killed a Palestinian policeman yesterday near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.

The army expressed "sorrow and regret" over the incident in which Sayed Abu Safra, 35, was killed. It said the soldiers involved were suspended from duty at least until the end of a military investigation.

Palestinian witnesses and medics said soldiers shot the policeman in the head as he tried to keep a mentally retarded villager back from the perimeter fence around the Nissanit settlement on Gaza's northern boundary with Israel. An army spokesman said soldiers guarding a cluster of three settlements fired towards a crowd of about 40 Palestinians to prevent them approaching the fence, killing one civilian.

On Wednesday, Israeli troops shot dead three men in a car on a southern Gaza road used by Jewish settlers, believing they were militants about to attack. But no arms were found in the car and an inquiry was launched, military sources said.

Relatives said the three men were cousins returning from a family gathering on the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast holiday and had nothing to do with militants. Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has diminished and a new Palestinian cabinet under moderate Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie is trying to arrange a ceasefire between militants and Israel to revive the US-led "road map" peace plan.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under pressure to produce initiatives to break a stalemate in peacemaking, said on Thursday Israel would have to cede some occupied territory for peace and hinted at the possible removal of some settlements.