Hours after Israel's rejection to expansion of a Palestinian-Israeli truce deal to the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian boy in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday afternoon, putting an already fragile truce agreement in jeopardy.

Witnesses said that the Israeli soldiers hit Mohammed Jebji, 15,who was on his way to school, with a gunshot on his head.

The incident took place while the soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators and stone-throwers in Nablus, they added.

In southern West Bank city of Hebron, medical sources said an eight-year-old boy was critically wounded after an Israeli settler opened fire at him.

The ongoing violence in West Bank threatens a fragile ceasefire started in Gaza last Sunday.

In the wake of the violence in the West Bank, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced it has suspended its participation in a special committee formed earlier in the day to oversee ways of enforcing the truce deal.

Despite the Palestinian hope that the ceasefire could be extended to cover West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz confirmed earlier in the day that Israel would continue its military operations in West Bank.

Moreover, Peretz orders his army to open fire at any Palestinian militant in Gaza who tried to launch home-made rockets into Israel.

The newborn mutual ceasefire between Palestinians and Israel seems short-lived, as Israeli artillery was reported to have resumed shelling northern Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon.

On Nov. 26, following months of Israeli military operations,Israel and the Palestinians agreed on a ceasefire under it Israel withdrew forces from Gaza in exchange for stopping home-made rocket attacks against Israel.