Israeli occupation troops have shot dead a Palestinian man on his way to a mosque for prayers in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah. Military sources reportedly said soldiers at an army outpost in a buffer zone separating Rafah from the border with Egypt shot two men approaching them on Wednesday in apparent preparation for an attack. It was not immediately known if they were dead, they said. Palestinian residents, however, said the 25-year-old man they reported shot was unarmed and his body was immediately recovered for burial, so he could not have been inside the buffer zone. Military sources said one of the two Palestinians was carrying a backpack that soldiers believed contained a bomb. A spokesman for the Israeli army said it was checking the Palestinian account. It was not clear if the two reported incidents were connected. On Tuesday, occupation troops killed two armed Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, and resistance fighters shot dead an Israeli soldier in the West Bank. Israel on Saturday scaled back a 17-day offensive in north Gaza, the deadliest in four years. More than 130 Palestinians were killed in the onslaught and hundreds of homes destroyed **PHOTO CAPTION*** Rafah residents deny the Palestinian was armed. (Al-Jazeera)