Israeli killed in roadside explosion

A Romanian worker was killed and two were wounded when a powerful roadside bomb exploded on Thursday morning near the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the army said.

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Boys playing truant stoned to death on West Bank

Stoned to death in a crime of Biblical savagery

A Romanian worker was killed and two were wounded when a powerful roadside bomb exploded on Thursday morning near the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the army said.

The explosion took place south of the Kissufim crossing. In an apparent response, army bulldozers razed Palestinian farmland near the Kissufim crossing, the fifth incursion into Palestinian–controlled territory in two days. One of the injured was in serious condition.

This comes as tension between the two sides is again mounting, following the stoning to death of two 14-year-old Jewish settler boys on Tuesday. Yaakov Mandell and Yossi Ishran had skipped school and, it is believed, met their assailants by chance. Their bodies were found on Wednesday morning in a cave in Wadi Hariton.

Hopes for a ceasefire have been dashed by this new violence, as Israeli armed forces spent Wednesday night scouring the West Bank in an intense manhunt. Israeli bulldozers razed Palestinian farmland and a police station near Kissufim, the fifth incursion into Palestinian territory in two days. Overnight, Israeli troops destroyed four homes and a Palestinian police station in the Rafah refugee camp, and 12 Palestinians were hurt.The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, condemned the killings as a "heinous murder" and a sign of "an additional escalation of Palestinian terror ... against civilians".