The circumstances of shooting were not clear, but Abu Zalat's uncle said his nephew may have been throwing stones at Israeli army jeeps at the time.

In the village of Yamoun, Ahmed Abul Hassan, 28, was shot and killed while he stood on the roof of his home.

Incursion

Relatives said he had gone up to watch the army raid and was hit by a bullet to the head.

Two of Abul Hassan's brothers were wounded, the family said.

The Israeli army said soldiers fired at two gunmen in Yamoun and hit them.

On Thursday, three Palestinians were killed in the southern Gaza strip during an Israeli incursion into the small town of Abassan.

The
killings are part of the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza and West Bank after the abduction of a soldier in a cross-border raid near Gaza on June 25.

"The Israelis have, in fact, decided to imprison us in one big cage and surround us," Abd al-Rahim Nitani, a resident of the Palestinian village of Um al-Tin near the three settlements, told the Israeli website YNetnews.

In its ruling, the court cited security considerations and said the three settlements at the centre of the case - Emanuel, Maale Shomron and Karnei Shomron - had been "targets of harsh terror attacks over recent years".

The International Court of Justice, in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2004, ruled the construction of the barrier on occupied land was illegal and should be stopped immediately.

Jewish settlements

Emanuel is located 18km inside the West Bank near the Palestinian city of Nablus. Maale Shomron and Karnei Shomron are slightly closer to Israel.

Around 240,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank among 2.4 million Palestinians.

Israel began building what is to be a 670km long barrier in the West Bank in 2002, describing it as a security measure to stop suicide bombers from infiltrating its cities.

About a third of the network of razor wire-tipped fences and towering concrete walls has been completed and Israeli officials say the project has already stopped several attacks.

Palestinians say it is a move a move to seize land that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war and will deny them the viable state they want in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners are held in prisons inside Israel, and not in the occupied West Bank,in contravention of international humanitarian Law," said B'Tselem's communications director, Sarit Michaeli.

"In order to guarantee basic human rights, they should be transferred to prisons in the West Bank where Palestinians are allowed to travel," she said.

Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war and although it withdrew soldiers and Jewish settlers from Gaza in August last year.

Since it is often very difficult for Palestinians to get permits to enter Israel, prison visits end up taking place only every few months.

Checks and delays when they do happen can mean that a visit of a few hours can take up to 24 hours to carry out.

"Israel's arbitrary and disproportionate policy not only infringes the right to family visits, it also results in violation of other rights and principles of international humanitarian and human rights law," said the report, entitled "Barred from Contact".

Security Issues

Israel's prison system said in response it made all efforts to allow family visits to take place in a "respectful manner".

"(The prison system) also acts in accordance with laws and regulations to check proof of identity meticulously, especially in light of recent events," said a spokesman, Yaron Zamir, referring to the stabbing of a guard by a prisoner's relative.

In a response sent to B'Tselem in August, the Justice Ministry said it did everything possible, within the constraints of security, to facilitate visits and said that it had denied only 41 of 4,616 visits requested since December 2005.

"The state has been acting relentlessly, despite the many security and administrative difficulties involved, to enable the existence of these visits," it said.

The ministry did not directly address the allegation of the illegality of holding the prisoners in Israel.

"Early August, one week before ceasefire, paratroopers were sent to Bint Jbeil town, in southern Lebanon to film Israeli soldiers occupying a rooftop and raising the Israeli flag".

"The aim was to provide proofs that we occupied the town after severe battles with Hezbollah fighters. While taking pictures we were attacked by fighters and three soldiers were killed, later on armored vehicles were sent to the area to evacuate us, they were also attacked and several soldiers were killed".

After the offices, Knesset member Ran Cohen, from Meretz party, said described the incident as "atrocity", and added that this proves that the army was not sent to defend the country and its citizens, but was "sent to show off"".

Al Farra family owns olive orchards near the illegal settlement and managed recently to obtain an order from the Israeli High Court allowing them to pick their olives.

Hashim Al Farra said that when the family managed to reach their orchards, they found out that most of their olives have already been picked by the settlers.

Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac also accused Israel's flights over Lebanon of violating UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas on Aug. 14.

However, in response to the French condemnation, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet in Jerusalem Sunday that "the accumulating intelligence in our hands points to arising effort to transfer arms" to Hezbollah.

Paris might choose to turn a blind eye, but for Israel, "the legitimacy for over flights increases," Peretz said. In fact, Israel has more excuses for rationalizing its air presence beyond the northern border with Lebanon.

According to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were still being held captive, in direct opposition to the UN resolution.

The international arms embargo on Hezbollah was not fully in place, and "unfortunately there are still illicit arms transfers," Regev said.

The spokesman added that the resolution called for the removal of all Hezbollah armed personnel south of the Litani River, something that had not yet been achieved.

A source of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, based in East Jerusalem, told Xinhua that Hezbollah militants concealed their armed activities by wearing civilian clothes and refraining from carrying unconcealed weapons.

As a result, it was quite difficult for the UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army to search for such activities, the source added. Another issue which IDF officials concern is whether the Lebanese Army, made up of four divisions totaling 8,000 soldiers, is fully organized in the area.

Israeli officials said they passed on to Lebanon information about dozens of suspicious locations, some of them deep in Lebanon. However, the Lebanese Army reported that it had checked them without having discovered anything significant.

The Lebanese troops said sometimes it was hard to patrol some of the suspicious sites due to the fear of detonating Israeli explosives that were left behind during the month-long Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

Al-Tirawi made the remarks in response to reports that Hamas began forming forces in the West Bank, similar to its forces in the Gaza Strip currently controlled by the Interior Ministry.

Hamas claims that the forces in the West Bank are designated to protect its ministers and lawmakers and government buildings after they were targeted several times by angry protestors and militants belonging to the Fatah movement.

He pointed out that the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah armed wing, would issue a statement pledging allegiance to "official and legitimate security services, and will face any illegal force and target its members.

Interior Minister Said Siam formed Auxiliary Forces in the Gaza Strip in May to boost security. Recently, Auxiliary Forces have curbed several armed demonstrations by unpaid security members.