A、his involvement in the protesting at a death sentence handed down against Attar B、his slaying a Palestinian policeman and bein

Two teenagers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
   Reports allege the two died when Palestinian police opened fire on rioters protesting at a death sentence handed down against a local man for slaying a policeman.
   But Palestinian police chief General Ghazi Jabali denied his men were responsible for the killings and in- stead blamed the Israeli army, which in turn rejected his accusations outright.
   Relatives identified the dead youths as Ala al-Hams, and Khamis Mahmud Salama, both 17.
   Another six people, including a 10-year-old boy, were wounded in the violence which erupted in Yabna refugee camp after a Gaza City security court condemned Raed al-Attar to death for the February killing of a policeman.
   "They were killed and their comrades wounded when Israeli soldiers on a lookout post near the Egyptian border opened fire on the crowd," Jahali told a press conference.
   The Israelis were responding to shots fired by unknown assailants driving in a car near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, he said.
   "During that time, the Palestinian police did not intervene," Jabali said.
   "We categorically reject all these accusations about a supposed Israeli army role in these incidents," an Israeli army spokesman told reporters. "No Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip was involved in any of the shots which caused casualties.’
   Attar, 25, a Palestinian security force member, was accused of acting as a double agent for the Islamic Resistance Movement or Hamas, the main movement opposed to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and its peace accords with Israel.
   An associate, Mohammed Abu Shamallah, 25, was sentenced to life in prison and a third man, Ossama Abu Tahar, 24, was jailed for 15 years at hard labor for involvement in the shooting.
   It was the first time the Palestinian Authority has handed down the death sentence against a suspected member of Harms.
   But it was not known if Arafat would sign the death warrant or commute Attar’s sentence to life in prison as he has done in all but three previous murder cases.
   More than 2,500 people joined a funeral procession for Hamas, which turned into a protest march against the Palestinian Authority as it crossed Rafah to the local cemetery.