TUNIS/GAZA Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said late on Sunday he would consult US President George W. Bush this week on ways to advance peace talks so that a deal with Israel can be reached by the end of the year.
In Gaza, Israeli troops killed a Hamas fighter during a raid on the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the ruling Palestinian faction and hospital officials said.
Abbas, speaking during a visit to Tunisia from where he travels to Washington on Tuesday, said he does not want the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian talks, shrouded in secrecy, to end with a vague declaration of principles.
"I will focus in my talks with President Bush and American officials on the negotiations and on ending talks with an agreement this year," Abbas told reporters.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an operation had taken place near Beit Hanoun, a border town frequently used by Palestinian factions to launch rockets into the Jewish state.
Israeli forces shot two fighters who tried to attack them and detained more than 30 Palestinians for interrogation before withdrawing, the military spokeswoman said.
Palestinian hospital officials said the body of a Hamas fighter had been retrieved from the scene of the fighting. He had been hit by tank shell, they said.
A human rights group said the death of a Palestinian boy in the Gaza Strip earlier this month, originally blamed on Israeli forces, was caused by mortar fire from Palestinian fighters.
On April 6, AFP cited medical sources as saying the child was killed by Israeli tank fire between the Gaza border with Israel and the Bureij refugee camp.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights subsequently conducted an investigation into the killing.
"According to our inquiry, the child Abdullah Mohammed Bahar, four years old, was killed by a Palestinian mortar," said Jaber Wichah, deputy director of the PCHR, based in Gaza.
The four-year-old died shortly after being taken to hospital, the PCHR said.
A four-year-old Israeli boy was wounded when a rocket fired from Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel, medics said.
The boy was rushed to hospital in the town of Ashkelon with light injuries to his shoulder.
Agencies
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