Four Palestinians killed in West Bank, Gaza

GAZA - The Israeli army have killed four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, hospital sources said, as violence spiralled anew despite a deal between the sides to restore liaison bureaux.

Witnesses said two Palestinian demonstrators were shot dead near the town of Jenin and one in Nablus, both in the West Bank, while a 13-year-old boy died after being hit by shrapnel in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.

The deaths raised to 274 the toll in two months of violence in the West Bank and Gaza, where Palestinians seeking an end to occupation have battled Israeli troops, and occasionally in Israel itself which has been hit by several bombings.

Hospital sources in Jenin, Nablus and Gaza said that at least 60 people, including several in an ambulance struck by Israeli fire in Gaza, had been wounded on Saturday.

Palestinian witnesses said on Saturday evening that Khan Younis was coming under missile fire from Israel gunboats in the nearby Mediterranean and from the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim situated between Khan Younis and the coast.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers had been shot at from Khan Younis and returned fire, but had no knowledge of the town being targeted by navy vessels offshore.

Palestinian cabinet minister Hassan Asfour said Israel was increasing its attacks on Palestinians "to expand its occupation. This proves Israel only knows the language of aggression and the Palestinians will confront it".

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in Amman for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, said he hoped fresh diplomatic moves would help end the violence.

"I hope the diplomatic efforts and the Arab and international initiatives will attain positive results in stopping the aggression on the Palestinian people," Arafat told Jordanian state television before leaving for talks in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow would back an international peacekeeping force to try to reduce Israeli-Palestinian violence, but denied that Moscow had developed a new Middle East peace plan.

Speaking in Germany, Ivanov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had not developed a new Russian peace plan during talks on Friday with Arafat, but rather Moscow was working with the United Nations and others to help calm the crisis.

Earlier, Arafat dismissed reports of a wider Russian Middle East peace initiative, and accused Israel of failing to implement deals to curb the bloodshed.

Hospital officials in Nablus said that Fouad Dweikat, 30, died after he was shot in the chest. The Israeli army said its outposts had come under Palestinian fire in the area in the early afternoon and that it had returned fire.

In Jenin, hospital officials said Amjad Azmi Mohammed, 21, was killed by a bullet to the abdomen and that Abdel-Min'em Mohammed Izzedin, 17, was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers.

Palestinians denied Israeli army reports that they had fired weapons, saying they had only thrown stones.

Witnesses in Gaza said that 13-year-old-Palestinian Tayseer Abu Akar was killed by shrapnel from Israeli tank shells as he stood in front of a mosque in Khan Younis.

Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, the Palestinian public security chief, said Israeli fire at Khan Younis was part of an Israeli plan to re-occupy territory returned to Palestinian self-rule under interim peace deals since 1993.

"We reject any Israeli orders to intervene in our affairs ... We will not leave this Palestinian military location no matter what happens," he told Reuters, referring to a security post and checkpoint that Israeli troops tried to remove on Friday, triggering a pitched battle lasting hours.

Violence broke out again between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops firing rifles in Nablus and Qalqilya in the West Bank, witnesses said. The Israeli army said it did not know of disturbances in those areas.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed talk of a rapprochement after Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed in a telephone call on Friday to reopen liaison offices Israel had unilaterally closed on Thursday.

The move will restore what had been the last formal security link between the two sides forged under interim peace deals.

Mubarak was quoted in an interview with Kuwait's al-Seyassah daily as saying on Saturday he opposed an Arab oil embargo against the West to put pressure on Israel to end the conflict with the Palestinians.

Mubarak also rejected calls for Egypt - which recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, accusing Israel of aggression towards the Palestinians - to launch a war against Israel.

Barak's office said he would send senior aide Danny Yatom to meet Mubarak on Sunday. Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami is due to fly to Russia early next week for talks with Ivanov.


In Nablus, thousands of mourners bore the flag-wrapped bodies of Sami Sayel, 28, and his brother Nahed, 26, through the streets a day after they were killed in the nearby village of Kufr Kalleel.

"Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," they chanted, marching in a sea of Palestinian flags. Five other Palestinians, a Jewish settler and an Israeli soldier also died on Friday.

Witnesses said the Sayel brothers, both fathers of three children, died when Israeli tank rounds blasted a house they were using as cover. The Israeli army said it had responded to shooting with tank fire towards open ground, not at houses.

Herald Online feature: Middle East

Backgrounder: Holy city in grip of past

Map

Middle East Daily

Arabic News

Arabic Media Internet Network

Jerusalem Post

Israel Wire

US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process