Clashes flare despite Israeli-Palestinian agreement

8:00 AM

JERUSALEM - Fierce clashes have erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip despite an agreement by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to resume a measure of security cooperation.

After the leaders spoke by telephone, Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian protesters during clashes in the West Bank and fighting raged in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, causing panic on the streets as people fled carrying screaming children.

Witnesses said uniformed Palestinian security forces opened fire in Khan Younis, apparently for the first time since clashes began eight weeks ago, under a barrage of Israeli fire. Gunmen shot dead a Jewish settler earlier in the day.

The agreement, announced by Barak's office, was one sign of hope that emerged from a round of personal diplomacy by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hosted Arafat in the Kremlin and arranged the long-distance call between the two warring leaders.

"Barak and Arafat agreed to maintain security cooperation on the field level and in this context to renew the operation of the (joint) liaison offices," the Israeli statement said, referring to District Coordination Offices.

During the conversation, Arafat pledged "to do everything in his power" to put an end to two months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, the Israeli statement said.

Arafat has been seeking a bigger diplomatic role for Russia, a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process, and the European Union to counterbalance what Palestinians see as pro-Israeli bias by the main mediator, the United States.

Israel said Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami would go to Russia early next week for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The reopening of the liaison offices will restore what had been the last formal security link between the two sides.

Israel ordered Palestinian officers to leave the bureaux on Thursday after a bomb blast killed an Israeli soldier at a liaison office in southern Gaza. The Palestinian officers refused to abide by the Israeli edict.

In the new violence, soldiers shot a 15-year-old Palestinian in the head during clashes in the West Bank town of Jenin and a 20-year-old Palestinian was shot twice in the heart in Qalqilya, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, hospital officials said.

Their deaths raised to 266 the number of people killed since Palestinians began an uprising to demand an independent state and an end to Israeli occupation. Most of the dead were Palestinian but the Israeli death toll has risen this week.

Palestinian gunmen shot dead a settler in his car on a main West Bank road earlier on Friday. Clashes flared in Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip and two Palestinians died of previous wounds.

Witnesses said the army used heavy-calibre weapons in Khan Younis in a clash with gunmen which began after soldiers tried to move a police checkpoint.

They said stone-throwing protesters tried to stop the soldiers and Palestinian gunmen responded when the army started firing. Uniformed Palestinian security forces later joined in and both sides fired anti-tank missiles.

The witnesses said hundreds of people fled their homes in Khan Younis to escape the Israeli barrage and ran through the streets carrying screaming children. At least 15 people were hurt, hospital officials said.

While Arafat visited Russia, which has also been trying to raise its Middle East peacemaking profile, top Israeli and Palestinian officials signalled a willingness to find a way out of a deadly cycle of violence.

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh, who met senior Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim and Palestinian cabinet minister Jamil al-Tarifi on the Israel-Gaza border late on Thursday, said the contacts would continue.

A senior Palestinian official said they reached an agreement at the surprise talks to pull back from confrontation. Sneh said "no operative agreements" had been sealed.

"The agreement stated that both sides would implement the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings in parallel steps and they would be carried out within the next few days," the official said, referring to the outcome of a Middle East summit last month.

He said Israel would end its encirclement of Palestinian cities, withdraw soldiers and tanks from forward flashpoints and ``stop assassinations'' of militia gunmen.

In return, the official said, "the Palestinians would make sure there is no fighting from areas where Palestinian police are deployed". He said Arafat had renewed orders to that effect on Thursday.

An Israeli government source said Israel had agreed to lift its blockade of Palestinian cities by the start, either on Sunday or Monday, of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but only "on condition that violence stops from the Palestinian side".

Implementation of the Sharm el-Sheikh understandings have been stymied by continued clashes in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel says it imposed the "closure" on Palestinian towns for security reasons after the violence began in September. Palestinians call the measure "collective punishment".

Barak's security cabinet decided earlier in the day not to order strikes on Palestinian targets in retaliation for a car bomb attack by Islamic militants on Wednesday.

Two Israelis were killed and dozens wounded in the explosion in the northern town of Hadera.

Israel launched missile attacks from the air and sea against Palestinian security targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a roadside bomb killed two adults and wounded several children on a Jewish settlers' school bus.

Israeli political sources predicted Barak would steer ministers away from a strong military response, fearing an international backlash and a hardening of Palestinian positions on resuming a peace process shattered by the wave of unrest.

On the difficult diplomatic front with Egypt, a key mediator in peacemaking, Barak's office said he would send senior aide Danny Yatom to meet President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday.

Egypt, accusing Israel of aggression towards the Palestinians, recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first between an Arab country and the Jewish state.

- REUTERS

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