GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli soldiers firing Friday from across a border fence killed four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounded more than 150 others, health officials said, as several thousand people in blockaded Gaza staged a fourth round of weekly protests on the border with Israel. JERUSALEM: Israel's defence minister today dismissed claims the country's spy agency was behind the assassination of a Palestinian scientist in Malaysia, suggesting instead that his killing was a "settling of accounts".Speaking to Israeli radio, Avigdor Lieberman described the dead Palestinian, a member of Islamist militant group Hamas, as "no saint" and said he had been involved in rocket production.Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a Kuala Lumpur drive-by shooting on Saturday, according to Malaysian authorities, with his family accusing Israel's Mossad spy agency of the assassination.Hamas said Batsh, a research scientist specialising in energy issues, was one of its members. JERUSALEM
• Israel's Defence Minister said yesterday that a Palestinian scientist shot dead in Malaysia was a rocket expert and "no saint", but dismissed suggestions by Hamas that Israel's Mossad spy agency assassinated him. An autopsy was being carried out Sunday on the body of Batsh, who was walking to dawn prayers at a local mosque in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Gombak when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, Malaysian officials said. An autopsy was being carried out Sunday on the body of Batsh, who was walking to dawn prayers at a local mosque in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Gombak when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, Malaysian officials said.At the crime scene, police markers indicated 14 bullets had been sprayed at the victim, some of them hitting a wall.Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted by the state-run Bernama news agency as saying Batsh was "an electrical engineer and an expert at making rockets".Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza fire rockets at southern Israel, but usually without casualties.Malaysia's police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said a task force has been formed to investigate the killing but would not speculate on the motive or whether foreign assassins were involved.Photos of the two suspects provided by witnesses showed they looked like Europeans, he told a news conference Sunday afternoon.When asked if there was evidence of foreign involvement in the killing, he said: "We want to ensure a complete probe. In recent weeks, tensions have been running high at the Gaza-Israel border as Palestinians have ramped up protests demanding the right to return to homes that are now in Israel. Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections. The European Union has urged the Israeli military to "refrain from using lethal force against unarmed protesters," after four Palestinians, including a teen-age boy, were killed by army fire in protests along Gaza's border with Israel.
Hamas says Palestinian engineer Fadi al-Batsh, shot dead on his way to a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, today, was an important member. Hamas does not ascribe responsibility for the killing but the victim's relatives allege Israeli involvement. Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett calls al-Batsh a terrorist and says no burial will be permitted in Gaza.