Killing of two-year-old settler girl marks new low in Palestinian uprising

JERUSALEM - Tensions soared in the Middle East early today after Palestinian gunmen shot dead the two-year-old daughter of a Jewish settler in the West Bank city of Hebron, one of the focal points of the last six months of violence.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that the toddler was the youngest victim of the conflict so far, although this is likely to be disputed by Palestinians. She was shot twice in her head.

The Israel Defence Forces responded to the killing by placing part of Hebron, containing more than 30,000 Palestinian residents, under a renewed curfew, restoring a sanction under which much of the city has lived for months.

Although many Israelis are generally unsympathetic to the 200,000 Jewish settlers living in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, the child's killing was greeted with horror and anger in Israel.

It brought the number of Israeli Jews to die in the conflict to 68. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed, of whom around 150 have been children under the age of 18, according to Palestinian officials.

The shooting was followed by heavy fighting in Hebron, which has been a major flashpoint throughout the intifada, where about 500 Jewish settlers live amidst 130,000 Palestinians in small, heavily guarded enclaves, watched over by the Israel Military. There has been persistent fighting since the intifada began.

Pressure is certain to mount on the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to adopt tougher tactics against Palestinians, especially from the settler movement, which has long seen him as a champion of their cause but is now increasingly demanding that he give his armed forces a freer hand.

The girl's death seems likely also to increase calls for a move to a peaceful popularist intifada from Palestinian intellectuals and political activists who believe that the current armed conflict is counter-productive, not least because it is damaging the Palestinian cause in the international arena.

It followed several days of rising tensions in the run-up to today's Arab League summit in Amman, Jordan, where the Israel-Palestinian conflict is one of the main topics.

Also yesterday, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the abdomen and seriously wounded in the Gaza Strip near the Karni border crossing with Israel, hospital doctors reported. Stone-throwing Palestinian youths also clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Jericho, of whom several were injured.

The girl, Shalhevet Tass, was at a playground when she was hit and critically wounded, and her father, Yitzhak Tass, suffered less serious injuries, said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Jewish settlers in Hebron. "This is not an accident. It wasn't widespread gunfire. This is a sniper who shot a two-year-old girl," Mr Arnon said. "We demand that all this territory be recaptured and the terrorists be wiped out. There is no other solution. The head of the snake must be crushed."

Jewish settlers have repeatedly been targeted by Palestinian gunmen, particularly in drive-by shootings. Armed settlers have also attacked Arabs, and have been held responsible by B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, for at least seven killings in the last six months. B'tselem also said that at least 39 Palestinians have been shot and injured by settlers. At least 11 Palestinians have been beaten, there have been at least 48 reports of stoning attacks and another 48 attacks against property, especially the uprooting, or cutting down of olive trees.

Mr Sharon told a US-led commission investigating the violence that full blame should be placed on Yasser Arafat for the past six months of unrest. But Palestinians said Mr Sharon's visit to a disputed Jerusalem holy site last September was the spark for the current fighting.

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