Israeli military attacks leave three Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as talks of prisoner swap progresses. These stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Two Palestinians were reported dead and seven injured on Wednesday during Israeli shelling targeting the border line of Rafah city, southern Gaza Strip, and Egypt.

Local sources said that Israeli jetfighters bombarded the border area between Rafah and Egypt in the southern part of the Strip. The Israeli military said the targeted area has tunnels said to be used to traffic weapons into the Gaza Strip. Doctors said three of the wounded remain in critical condition. According to locals, the tunnels have been used to traffic food and medicine into the strip since Israel siege was imposed in June of 2006.

Elsewhere a Palestinian teenage boy was announced dead on Wednesday midday after an Israeli jeep run him over near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The boy, Fu’ad Turkman, 17 years old, sustained critical wounds and was moved to local hospital were he was announced dead shortly there after, medical sources reported.

Witnesses said the boy was leaving his school at the village of Yabod near Jenin when a military jeep ran him over. Troops continued to drive the jeep dragging the injured boy for 20 meters, then fled the scene, the witnesses added.

Earlier on Wednesday one Palestinian civilian was injured and three kidnapped during separate Israeli military attacks in a number of locations in the West Bank. Nader Threibat, 21 years old, was admitted to a hospital in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, surfing from light wounds, after being attacked by troops manning a nearby military checkpoint, doctors said. Local media sources reported military invasions and house search campaigns in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, northern West Bank.

In other news, a prisoner's swap deal was reached on Wednesday between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel. Israel is set to release Friday 20 Palestinian female prisoners in return for a video tape, proofing that a Hamas-captured Israeli soldier is alive.

Among those to be released in return for the video are four Hamas detainees and five from Fatah. All the detainees have spent two thirds of their imprisonment terms. Hamas officials say the release is a part of mediation by a German team that has recently joined three-year-long Egyptian-brokered swap talks.

The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian armed resistance fighters in June 2006. His captors, demand 1000 political detainees to be freed in exchange for Shalit's release. Human-right groups estimate that there are around 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention camps.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.