Two Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes against targets in the West Bank City of Ramallah this evening. A Red Crescent official said that the dead were a member of President Yasser Arafat's elite forces and a Palestinian civilian. Israel launched air strikes against Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip and Ramallah, hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israeli teenagers. The attack occurred Israel, close to the border with the West Bank. Four people were injured. And in the Jenin area of the West Bank, a 60-year-old Palestinian woman died of asphyxiation after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at her house as they searched for a Palestinian activist.
Earlier, the United States appealed for an end to the increasing violence in the Middle East and has called on the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct talks. Meanwhile, A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and three others were hurt when they picked up a pair of boxing gloves, which exploded and may have been booby-trapped. The incident occurred along the heavily-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
