Israeli troops fire lethal dart grenades

GAZA - A Palestinian farmer was buried in Gaza yesterday, his body riddled with nail-like projectiles fired by Israeli soldiers using a type of anti-personnel ammunition not seen in the Palestinian conflict before last week.

Relatives said the man was shot near the Karni Crossing. The Israeli Army said he was in an area where there had been attacks on Israelis.

He was admitted to Shifa Hospital in Gaza with one of the projectiles in his left eye, two pointing in opposite directions in his pelvis and one in his left lung, x-rays showed.

Hospital officials could not immediately identify the ammunition used on the farmer, and on another man on March 2.

An Army spokesman, when asked what type of weapon had been used, said: "The IDF uses means best suited to the overall security conditions and specific threats in the area."

But Palestinian security sources said the Army appeared to have used a type of cluster bomb or rifle grenade which explodes, spraying the target with dozens of needle-like projectiles about the size of an average nail.

Known as flechettes, the objects have tiny stabilising fins, like those used to stabilise rockets in flight or darts thrown at a dartboard in a pub.

Israel has developed its own version of the flechette round, but the Army was not known to have used this type of ammunition in the Palestinian conflict before last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Palestinian President Yasser Arafat of doing nothing to stop violence against Israelis as Palestinians yesterday blamed Sharon for turning their cities into prison camps.

Troops have dug trenches and put up sand embankments near the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Jenin and Jericho and placed tanks near Ramallah, sealing the Palestinian-ruled cities off from other parts of the West Bank, home to two million Palestinians.

Witnesses said additional roadblocks had been set up in the heart of Jerusalem, a prime target of Islamic militant suicide bombers who have vowed to launch a rash of attacks with Sharon's rise to power.

Sharon told Fox News yesterday that Arafat's security forces, including his personal guards, were involved in "terrorist activities."

"Most of the terrorist acts at the present time are carried out by Palestinian armed forces, security services and even the closest to Arafat forces, that is, what you call Force 17, the presidential guard," he said.

The 73-year-old former general, who took power last week after defeating Ehud Barak in a February election, said he would shake Arafat's hand in a meeting only once the fighting ended.

Sharon has previously said he would never shake the hand of Arafat, whom he has branded a "war criminal."

Sharon said he was disappointed Arafat did not call for a end to hostilities in a speech to Palestinian lawmakers on Sunday in which he lashed out at what he called Israeli aggression.



The Palestinian leadership issued a statement calling for the United Nations Security Council to convene and for the international community to act "to bring an end to this new racist Israeli policy that can lead to a full explosion in the entire region."

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo has accused the new Government of officially launching what he called a new war against the Palestinian people.

- REUTERS

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