Israel kills 6 Palestinians in sharp escalation of violence

Nablus: Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians on Saturday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the bloodiest violent outbreak in months.

Nabi Abu Rudeina, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' top aide, accused Israel of inflaming tensions and seeking to torpedo US-backed efforts to renew stalled peace talks.

Frozen talks

The violence came a day before the anniversary of the three-week Gaza war that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Peace talks have been frozen since.

Soldiers killed three Palestinians suspected of trying to infiltrate from Gaza, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

A Hamas security source said the three were apparently civilians collecting scrap metal near the Israeli border.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, soldiers surrounded the homes of three members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, belonging to Abbas' Fatah group, and killed all three.

"This grave Israeli escalation shows Israel is not interested in peace and is trying to explode the situation," Rudeina told Reuters.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, a close ally of Abbas, released a statement saying he "strongly condemned" the shootings, which he viewed as an "extreme escalation".