Israeli soldiers look at weapons they say were with the killed Palestinians

GAZA CITY, March 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Three members of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas suspected of planting roadside explosives were shot dead by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip Sunday, March 14, according to security sources on both sides.

Also in Gaza, charges against four Palestinians accused of killing three Americans in the Strip in a bomb attack last October were dropped.

The three Palestinian men, all aged in their 20s, were killed by the road between the Karni border crossing and the settlement of Netzarim just south of Gaza City, a Palestinian security source who helped recover the bodies was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hamas later said on its website that the three - named as Ahmed Hamdan, Mohammed Limbayit and Mahmud Liawa - had been taking part in an operation on behalf of its armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

An Israeli military source said that troops had opened fire after the three had been spotted on the side of the road in an area which is off limits to Palestinians.

"We later found an explosive device next to the three bodies," the source told AFP.

The latest deaths bring to 3,833 the number of peopled killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation, including 2,879 Palestinians and 886 Israelis.

The shootings came a day after two other Hamas activists were killed by Israeli gunfire when they attacked an occupation army position near the Karni crossing point.

Israeli army sources said troops saw two "suspect silhouettes" in a prohibited area approaching the security fence dividing the two territories and opened fire, hitting them both.

Case Dropped

Israeli soldiers drag away Palestinians trying to stop the construction of the separation wall (AFP)

Meanwhile, prosecutors decided Sunday to drop their case against four Palestinians who had been facing trial over the killing of three Americans in a bomb attack on a diplomatic convoy last October, officials said.

Judicial sources told AFP the four members of the Popular Resistance Committees had been freed from prison in Gaza as "no evidence was offered against them," but a senior police official later said the group would remain in custody until their release had been rubberstamped by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"There has been a decision from the court (to drop the case) but this decision needs approval from President Arafat and it will not be today," the police source told AFP.

The four, who were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack on October 15, were formally charged over the killing early last month.

The three U.S. security personnel had been working for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv when they were killed in a roadside blast as a U.S. diplomatic convoy traveled close to the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

It was the first attack on a foreign target since the start of the Palestinian Intifada.

An anonymous telephone caller claiming to represent the Popular Resistance Committees told AFP at the time that it was responsible for the attack on the U.S. convoy, but the group later issued a denial.

A spokesman for the group said that prosecutors had decided to halt the case against the four men - Naim Abu Ful, 42, Bashir Abu Laban, 41, Mohammad Al-Dsuki Kamel Hamad, 22, and Ahmad Abdel Fatah al-Safi, 23.

"The court has decided to release the four after an inquiry," he said.

A U.S. Embassy source said that it had not been informed by the Palestinian authorities about the move.

"We were not informed about this development and we do not have any details," the source told AFP.

"Our interest remains the same - that the investigation be pursued vigorously and we want those responsible for this crime to be arrested, convicted and punished."

Officials in Washington said they put no stock in the investigation.

"We don't believe that the proceedings that are now underway represent the genuine resolution and application of justice that we seek," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last month.

The United States had also expressed unhappiness over the fact the four faced manslaughter rather than murder charges, with the indictment saying that the aim was to target Israeli tanks.

Arafat's national security advisor Jibril Al-Rajub has accused Washington of "blackmailing" the Palestinians by halting its involvement in the Middle East peace process while awaiting the results of the investigation, a claim dismissed by the State Department as "ridiculous".

The United States has offered a reward of up to five million dollars for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack.