Israeli police kill Palestinian worker in West Bank

Israeli police killed a West Bank construction worker as he tried to scale the barrier and sneak into Jerusalem yesterday.

Also yesterday, an Israeli military court convicted two soldiers of using a 9-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during last year's Gaza war - the most serious conviction yet connected to troops' conduct during the military offensive.

At the West Bank barrier, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, the Palestinian laborer, Izzedine Kawazbeh, tried to grab the officer's gun. The police officer, re-enacting the incident, told investigators at the scene that his weapon discharged accidentally.

Kawazbeh's cousin, Radad Kawazbeh, 30, denied that Izzedine Kawazbeh, a 35-year-old father of five, had tried to grab the gun, saying the officer was 10 meters away.

In the soldiers' conviction, the court said they asked the boy to open bags in a building they took over, fearing explosives were inside. Israeli news website Ynet said the soldiers could face up to 3 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire asked Israel's Supreme Court Sunday to allow her to enter the country, five days after the outspoken critic of Israel was detained at Israel's international airport on her way to meet Jewish and Palestinian peace activists.

Maguire has been barred from entering Israel because she has taken part in attempts to breach Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. - AP