Roundup: 8 Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers

Eight Palestinians, including a woman, were killed and more than 45 injured in fierce clashes that broke out on Friday in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between Israeli soldiers and angry Palestinian young men, medics and officials said.

Medical officials said a woman from the West bank was shot dead by Israeli police gunfire in the northern Israeli city of Afula. The police said she was killed after she tried to stab an Israeli soldier.

Israeli troops shot dead on Friday afternoon a Palestinian young man in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Osama al-Najjar, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said in a press statement that the Palestinian young man was shot and killed by the Israeli soldiers after he stabbed one of the Israeli soldiers in the area. Israeli radio meanwhile reported that an Israeli soldier was slightly injured.

In the Gaza Strip, six Palestinians were killed and more than 25 injured in the clashes that broke out on Friday afternoon between Palestinian young men and Israeli soldiers stationed on the border between Gaza Strip and Israel.

According to Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, Ahmed al-Herbawi, 20 , Shadi Dulah and Abdullah al-Wahidi, 21, were killed by Israeli soldiers' gunfire east of Gaza city, and two young men named Hamoud Mehsen, 19 and Adnan Abu Elian 20, were killed east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

The clashes began when dozens of young men threw stones at the Israeli army forces stationed at the borderline area between Israel and eastern, southern and northern Gaza Strip towns of Khan Younis, Gaza, Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, witnesses said.

They said Israeli soldiers used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the stones throwers who gathered close to the fence of the borderline area at the end of the Friday prayers.

Ismail Haneya, deputy chief of Islamic Hamas movement on Friday called for expanding the current ongoing tension in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to a larger popular Intifada, or Uprising.

"I confirm that Gaza stands behind the battle for Jerusalem and al-Aqsa and stands behind the blessed Intifada in spite of pain, siege and conspiracies," Haneya said in a speech during Friday prayers at a mosque in Gaza.

He went on saying that "the battle of Jerusalem is the battle of Gaza and the Intifada in the West Bank is the Intifada of our people," adding "we will always do the appropriate act in support for our people."

Clashes also were all over the West Bank, mainly in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron, where at least 16 Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and lives ammunition by the Israeli soldiers.

The tension has been going on in east Jerusalem and all over the West Bank between Israel and the Palestinians for more than a week and so far there are 16 Palestinians and four Israelis were killed and more than 1,000 people injured, most of them with live ammunition.

Violent clashes flared after Hamas gunmen shot dead two Israeli settlers near Nablus in northern West Bank and then another Palestinian stabbed and then shot dead two other Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Over the past few days, Palestinians carried out more than ten stabbing attacks in Israel, in east Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Endit