Along the Gaza border with Egypt, a 13-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who were clearing territory in an Israeli-controlled buffer zone near the Rafah refugee camp, Palestinians hospital officials said. Seven were wounded.
The Israeli military said soldiers returned fire at Palestinian gunmen who were attacking an Israeli military post.
In an explosion at a home in the Bureij refugee camp south of Gaza City, Mohammed Baghdadi, 30, lost a leg, doctors said. Baghdadi is a former bodyguard of Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Islamic militants, usually quick to blame Israel in such cases, had no comment.
The Israeli military said Israel had nothing to do with the blast.
The violent Islamic Hamas is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel in recent years, and has said it would retaliate with more attacks for Israel's two-week military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) was close to adding the ultra-nationalist Nation Union party to his emerging hard-line coalition. The party opposes concessions to the Palestinians.
In Gaza, thousands marched in a funeral procession for 52-year-old Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah al-Saba, who died Sunday with explosives strapped to his body, defying Israeli soldiers who demolished his house.
"You sacrificed your son, your house and yourself to go to heaven," chanted mourners standing on the rubble of al-Saba's home. The house was targeted after al-Saba's son, Mousab, attacked Israeli soldiers last week before he was shot to death.
Since July, Israel has demolished dozens of family homes of suspected militants, hoping to deter future attacks on Israelis. Al-Saba was the first to resist demolition by force, waging a four-hour battle with soldiers before his and other houses were destroyed.
Also Tuesday, four women and a 13-year-old girl were lightly hurt by shrapnel from Israeli shelling and machine gun fire toward the market of the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, witnesses said. The Israeli military said soldiers returned fire from gunmen, but used only rifles.
A rare Mideast snowstorm blanketed hills in Israel and the West Bank with at least a foot of snow. Children spent the day throwing snowballs and building snowmen, and only a few incidents of violence were reported in the West Bank
In Nablus, a 23-year-old Palestinian wounded when Israeli soldiers fired on rock-throwers in the West Bank city of Nablus on Feb. 16 died Tuesday, hospital officials said.
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