Six Palestinians killed by Israelis By Adel Zaanoun July 26, 2007 Agence France Press – HYPERLINK http://web.archive.org/web/20070816052959/http://fe32.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070726/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict http://web.archive.org/web/20070816052959/http://fe32.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070726/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict GAZA CITY (AFP) - Six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Thursday in the deadliest violence in three weeks as ground troops raided the southern Gaza Strip and attack aircraft targeted militants. The attacks cut against recent diplomacy designed to revitalise defunct peace talks and bolster Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas since Hamas seized control of Gaza. An Islamic Jihad commander and two cohorts from the hardline group were killed when an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into a car in Gaza City. Witnesses said the rockets slammed into the vehicle at an intersection in the southern part of the city and that one bystander was wounded by shrapnel. Islamic Jihad named the dead as Omar al-Khatib, 39, one of the main commanders of its military wing who escaped assassination in an Israeli raid on Tuesday, and two of his militants, Khalil al-Doiueifi and Ahmed al-Balaawi. An Israeli military spokesman said the air strike had targeted members of Islamic Jihad who were involved in terrorist activities against Israel. Witnesses and medics later said four Jihad militants were wounded during clashes with Hamas's Executive Force when they tried to recover their dead comrades' weapons from the self-styled police. But an Islamic Jihad member underplayed the incident, saying only that an Executive Force officer opened fire by mistake and wounded a local leader in the faction, whose condition was not serious. Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles also pressed an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip, sparking clashes with Palestinian gunmen as bulldozers ripped up farm land in the Rafah area, witnesses said. Sharif Breissi, 33, from the military wing of Hamas was fatally wounded by tank fire around Rafah, medical sources and witnesses said. Three Jihad gunmen were wounded in another Israeli air strike was called in during the incursion and at least three Palestinians were arrested. A third Israeli air raid against the densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip wounded two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip targeting launchers used to fire rockets into Israel, medical and army sources said. There is activity in the southern Gaza Strip against terror threats. During the activity an armed gunman was identified with an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) near the forces and we attacked him, an army spokesman said. A fifth Palestinian -- 20-year-old Jihad al-Shaer -- was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of Taqoa, near Bethlehem, after attacking a soldier at a checkpoint, medics and witnesses said. An army spokeswoman said a soldier fell down after the Palestinian tried to stab him and that the Palestinian died after he was hit by another soldier. A Hamas activist was killed later in the day during an Israeli air raid in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. Mahmud Abu Dakka of the Al-Qassam Brigades died when a warplane fired a missile at him in the Khan Yunes area, they said, adding that another Palestinian was wounded. In the village of Al-Dhahiriyeh in the south, 18-year-old Adham Nazmi al-Shalami was shot and wounded seriously in the chest by Israeli special forces while working in his father's quarry, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military said a Palestinian who arrived at a checkpoint with prior gunshot wounds was evacuated to hospital in Israel. The violence came one day after the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers said they were encouraged by Israel's reception of a new Arab peace plan following a landmark visit to Jerusalem for talks with top officials. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in parallel that serious talks had begun with Abbas towards creating a Palestinian state. In extracts of an Israeli newspaper interview published on Thursday, Abbas said US President George W. Bush is looking to reach a final status Israeli-Palestinian agreement before he leaves office. Meanwhile, an enquiry into the June 15 seizure of the Gaza Strip by Hamas will be published on Friday and personally accuse 66 high-ranking officers of Fatah's security services, over the incident, a senior official said, speaking under condition of anonymity. He said the officers were all suspected of being corrupt. Thursday's deaths took to 5,798 the number of people killed since the start of the second intifada in 2000, most of them Palestinian, according to a count compiled by AFP.