(dpa) - Israeli troops foiled an Palestinian attempt early Thursday afternoon to infiltrate the Kerem Shalom crossing point on the borders of Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, killing one militant and wounding another.
The third militant involved in the attempt managed to flee back to the Gaza Strip, pursued by Israeli troops.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the troops had spotted the group trying to infiltrate Israel via the crossing point, where 200 trucks pass weekly carrying aid to the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian gunmen successfully infiltrated the Nahal Oz crossing point, the main entry point for fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip, last week, killing two civilians. Israel temporarily suspended fuel deliveries to the salient following that attack.
Earlier Thursday, an Israeli army raid on the village of Qabatia in the northern West Bank killed two Palestinians, hospital officials said.
They said the bodies of two Palestinians, one 19 and the other 24 years old, were brought to a hospital in nearby Jenin following an army siege of a house in Qabatia.
The Israeli army raided the village in pursuit of militants from Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of the radical Islamic Jihad.
After besieging a house where the two were staying and after a brief exchange of gunfire, the two Palestinians were killed.
An Israel military spokesman in Tel Aviv said the soldiers had surrounded the house and called on the two men holed up inside to surrender.
When they did not, the soldiers opened fire at the house, but then spotted the fugitives trying to escape in a vehicle.
They directed their fire at the vehicle, and reported hitting it, he said.
An M-16 semi-automatic weapon, ammunition clips and night-vision goggles were later found in the car, the spokesman added.
The army left the area following the attack.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meanwhile accused Israel of creating difficult conditions in the path of the peace process through what he described as its violation of international law.
"As you know we are going through difficult conditions due to continuous (Israeli) occupation policies and activities that contradict international law and resolutions," he said in a pre- recorded statement broadcast Thursday to crowds who gathered at his Ramallah headquarters to mark the annual Palestinian Prisoner's Day.
He said the Israeli army has "intensified its incursions into the Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps to an unprecedented level causing the death, injury and arrest of many people."
Abbas, who is currently on an official visit to Moscow, said, "our decision is final: There will be no peace with Israel without the liberation of all the prisoners in the occupiers' jails and we will not sign any agreement that does not call for freedom to all of them."
Palestinian figures on prisoners say there are over 10,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, including teenagers, women and old men, some have spent over 20 years and few over 30 years.
Abbas said that while he brings the issue of release of prisoners in every meeting with Israeli officials, Israel, nevertheless, "instead of releasing thousands of prisoners, it intentionally releases only few through its unfair criteria."
He said Israel "releases prisoners by the drop while it arrests them by the bushel."
Thursday's event was supposed to include commemoration of several female prisoners, but organizers said it was cancelled due to Abbas' absence and to strong Israeli objections to some names on the list.
Israeli reports said the list included a woman who used the internet to lure an Israel teen to his death in Ramallah, and a woman who drove a suicide bomber to his pizza-parlour target in Jerusalem.