GAZA, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Officials in the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday morning that nine Palestinians were injured east of the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in central Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.

    A ministry statement said that a Jewish settler driving a car tried to enter the neighborhood east of the settlement, and when the residents reused to let him pass, he drove his car back and hit three residents.

    The statement also said that during the clash between the settler and the residents, an Israeli army force and severalsettlers arrived at the scene and clashed with them.

    Nine were injured, one of them lost his eye, and another one was critically injured and was transferred to an Israeli hospital by an Israeli army helicopter, said the statement.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources that a Jewish settler's car late Tuesday night hit a 57-year-old Palestinian resident near the Jewish settlement in Gadid west of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

    The sources said that the Palestinian man is a farmer lives in the area and he was hit by the settler's car as he was trying to cross the main street that leads to the settlement, adding that he was moderately injured.

    The Israeli government is intending to evacuate by mid-August some 5000 Jewish settlements living in 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip as part of implementing its unilateral disengagement plan with the Palestinians. Enditem