Arafat's faction wants action stepped up in Middle East

GAZA - Palestinian stone-throwers fought armed Israeli troops yesterday as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction called for intensified resistance at the start of a second month of protests.

The clashes at several flashpoints in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were much lighter than on Saturday, a "day of rage" during which Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinian demonstrators.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 51 demonstrators were wounded on Saturday and hospital officials in Gaza said a 14-year-old boy was in critical condition after he was shot in the head.

The latest violence has dimmed United States hopes of getting Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

In Gaza, clashes erupted after mourners bore the body of one of the latest killed, Jabber al-Mishal, aloft on a wooden stretcher draped in the Palestinian flag. Several men fired automatic rifles in the air.

Stone-throwing youths were met by Israeli troops firing live rounds, teargas and rubber-coated bullets at two crossing points with Israel and in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

Israel's Army Radio said demonstrators set alight Israeli buses parked at the Erez crossing point.

Arafat's Fatah faction said: "On the occasion of the beginning of the second month of the Intifada [uprising], Fatah is declaring a state of alert and emergency.

"Fatah calls its people to continue and escalate the Intifada, to strengthen internal unity and to upgrade the level of national readiness."

Palestinians say they are fighting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and to protest against what many see as an excessive use of force.

Israel says the Palestinian Authority has fomented the unrest and should do more to curb the violence, which has also pitted Palestinian police and militiamen against Israeli troops.

The director of the official Wafa news agency's Bethlehem office died in Jordan from wounds he received during clashes nine days ago, bringing to at least 139 the number of people killed since the violence broke out last month.

All but eight of the dead are Arabs, and the human rights group Amnesty International says children account for more than a quarter of the recent fatalities.

Several hundred Palestinians held a candlelight vigil in front of a United Nations office in Gaza at the weekend to demand international protection of Palestinian children.

Skirmishes with Israeli troops also erupted in the West Bank near the towns of Ramallah and Jenin.

The Israeli Army, on alert for suicide attacks in Israel after a bicycle bomber blew himself up in Gaza last week, said it feared the violence could rumble on into next year.

In an interview in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram newspaper, Arafat appeared to discount the prospect of renewed US mediation ahead of the November 7 presidential elections.

"The American President Bill Clinton will remain busy until November 7, since we are in the final days of the American presidential campaign," Arafat told the paper.

Clinton last week held out hope of holding separate White House meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat, who have been cool to the proposal, but said the violence must first abate.

The bloodshed has continued despite a ceasefire deal that President Clinton brokered in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh two weeks ago.

With diplomatic efforts stalled, Barak is trying to forge a national emergency government with right-wing Likud party leader Ariel Sharon, who Palestinians say provoked the violence by visiting al-Aqsa a month ago.

Meir Sheetrit, a Likud politician who has been negotiating with Barak's One Israel faction, said the sides had edged closer to a coalition deal. Barak lost his parliamentary majority in July and could face efforts to topple his Government when Parliament begins its winter session tomorrow.

Left-wing Israelis and Palestinians have warned that including the hawkish opposition leader Sharon in government would deal a fatal blow to the peace process.

Political insiders say Barak and Sharon remain at odds over Likud demands that its leader have veto powers over future peace moves with the Palestinians.

Deputy Prime Minister Binyamin Ben-Elizer said the sides had bridged most outstanding problems and the one or two that remained could be solved with good will.

"The central problem is ... if the Likud realises that the reality is one of an emergency, of clashes that require only one thing and that is to enter and lend a shoulder to cope with the problems."

- REUTERS

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