Israeli troops kill 3 militants in Gaza and West Bank

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian militants, one of them a woman, near the border fence between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian medics and the Israeli army said.

Another militant was killed by troops near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, medics said.

The woman, identified as Maissa Fanouna, was the first female militant killed in Gaza since an elderly woman blew herself up near Israeli troops during a raid in the north of the coastal enclave just over a year ago.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said the 23-year-old, a student of English literature from the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was a member of its organisation.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops shot at a man and a woman who opened fire at them near the border fence near a key crossing in northern Gaza.

Medical officials who collected the woman's body said a rifle was seen on the ground where she was lying. The other gunman's body had not yet been collected, the official said.

The Israeli army also said troops opened fire at several gunmen who approached a checkpoint near Jenin in the northern West Bank, where President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway, and shot one of them.

Islamic Jihad said the dead man was a member of its organisation. Medical workers in Jenin said they recovered the body near the village of Birqin.