Report: Israel to shorten West Bank barrier
Two Palestinians killed in Gaza in separate incidents
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A Palestinian woman walks beside part of the barrier that separates the outskirts of Jerusalem from the West Bank village of Abu Dis.
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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An Israeli newspaper reported Sunday that Israel would shorten the barrier along its border with the West Bank, but a government official refused to confirm the information.
In response to the report in Sunday's editions of Haaretz, government spokesman Assaf Shariv pointed out only that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week that certain sections of the barrier would likely be reconsidered.
As planned, the barrier would leave some Palestinian towns isolated and would effectively annex some Jewish settlements.
According to the report, the fence's 700-kilometer (420-mile) route will be reduced by about 100 kilometers (60 miles), eliminating planned sections that would have encircled some Palestinian communities.
Shariv said the barrier's overall length had not been decided. But Israel's Defense Ministry said in November that it would be 690 kilometers (414 miles) long.
In some spots, the barrier is an electronic fence. Elsewhere, it is a concrete wall. Israel has said it is necessary to stop Palestinian militants from entering the country to carry out terror attacks.
Palestinians say the barrier is a land grab.
The barrier's path generally runs close to the pre-1967 Mideast war border -- the so-called Green Line -- but juts into the West Bank to include some Jewish settlements.
It also cuts many Palestinians off from their farmland and villages, at some points forcing people to climb through gaps to shop and visit family.
IDF: Wanted man killed by Israeli troops
Israeli forces shot and killed a wanted Palestinian early Sunday in southern Gaza, according to an Israel Defense Forces spokesman.
Palestinian security sources said the Israeli forces surrounded the house of a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). After an exchange of gunfire, the PFLP member died and eight civilians were wounded, the sources said.
The PFLP is a left-wing Palestinian militant group that has committed numerous international terrorist attacks, as well as attacks against Israeli and moderate Arab targets, according to the U.S. State Department.
In a separate incident later Sunday, Israeli troops operating in Rafah shot and killed a Palestinian militant carrying an explosive device, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. Troops later detonated the device, she said.
Palestinian security officials confirmed the death but had no other details of the incident.
Troops operating in the area were conducting searches for tunnels used to smuggle weapons across the border from Egypt into Gaza, the Israeli spokeswoman said.
The Gaza operations came less than 24 hours after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Aziz al-Shami and an 11-year-old bystander. Palestinian sources also said the Israeli military killed an 18-year-old Palestinian while he was trying to cross into Israel from southern Gaza on Saturday.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. It has carried out military operations against Israeli soldiers and civilians, and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the U.S. government.
