Masked gunmen executed two Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel on Monday, including one who was machine-gunned in a town square in the West Bank.
Underlining growing lawlessness in Palestinian areas, militants of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades snatched Fadel Odeh, 22, drove him to the centre of Tulkarm, forced him out of the car and killed him, witnesses said.
A crowd gathered and youths stepped on the man's body.
A second man, Amjad Ajaj, 25, was found shot dead north of the West Bank town, residents said.
Palestinians have killed scores of their brethren accused of helping Israeli forces seek out and kill militants during fighting that erupted in September 2000. International human rights groups have condemned the vigilante killings.
The latest killings have added to a climate of anarchy that has gripped the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent months, posing the stiffest internal challenge yet to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's rule.
Al-Aqsa, an armed group in Arafat's Fatah movement, said the men killed on Monday had helped Israeli forces hunt down militants in a neighbouring village where the two lived. "They were responsible for the martyrdom of a number of Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad activists," it said in a statement.
Izz al-Din al-Sharif, Tulkarm district governor, said Israel, which has crippled Palestinian security services during a four-year uprising, was responsible for the chaos.
In the Gaza Strip, some 10,000 Palestinian mourners chanted for revenge as they marched in the funeral of a senior Hamas commander killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday. A missile tore apart a car carrying Khaled Abu Selmiya, 33.
Tensions have escalated in Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a plan to withdraw troops and settlers by the end of next year from the narrow coastal strip captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
ISRAELI MISSILE KILLS TWO IN GAZA: An Israeli missile strike tore apart a car carrying gunmen in Gaza City on Monday, killing at least two people, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.
At least eight Palestinians, including bystanders, were wounded in the explosion on the southern outskirts of Gaza. Witnesses described a flash of light from Israeli aircraft circling overhead before the blast.
The Israeli army declined comment, but Israel Radio said the two dead were members of the militant group Hamas.
On Sunday a senior Hamas leader in Gaza was killed by an Israeli missile strike on his car.
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