The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) condemned on Sunday Israel for killing six Palestinians in northern Gaza Strip, and accused it of escalating military actions against the Palestinian people.
"Israel has assassinated in cold blood six Palestinians in the villages of Beit Lahya and Beit Hanon in northern Gaza Strip," said an official PNA spokesman in a statement.
Israel Radio quoted army sources as saying that Israeli troops shot and killed Sunday night six Palestinian militants in northern Gaza Strip who were on their way to carry out attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers.
"While calmness is dominating the area, and while (U.S. Mideast envoy ) General Anthony Zinni is preparing to return to the region, Israel is again inflaming fire by preparing perfidious traps for innocent Palestinians," said the statement.
Early Sunday evening, Israel Radio reported that the Israeli army shot and killed three Palestinian militants who were trying to infiltrate into the Jewish settlement of Eli Sinai.
The statement said that "The first three Palestinians were killed in a trap set up by the army near Beit Lahya village and they were not trying to infiltrate into Eli Sinai."
It noted that right after the three was killed, "in order to cover its crime of killing the three people, Israeli army tanks had rained the area north of Beit Lahya with tank missiles."
"It was obvious that the Israeli government is planning to explode the stable security situation and make Zinni's mission to implement the signed agreements fail again," it added.
Later on Sunday night, Israel Radio reported that another three Palestinians who were on their way to attack Israeli troops near the village of Beit Hanon were killed by a special Israeli Police unit.
"Later on, the Israeli forces killed another three people again in a perfidious trap set up to kill them and blew up the period of calmness that had been dominating the area for more than two weeks," the statement said.
The PNA spokesman said that the whole area where the three were killed was not a military area.
"We are calling upon the international community to raise its voice so high against the Israeli crimes and against the siege imposed on our people before our people lose their temper," said the statement.
(Xinhua News Agency December31, 2001)
