Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's talks with US President Bill Clinton aimed at ending six weeks of Middle East bloodshed were back on again Sunday after the peaceful end to a hijacking drama in Israel.
The new diplomatic push came as Israelis and Palestinians prepared to bury their dead after another bloody day in the occupied territories, where violent incidents were reported early Sunday.
The funerals were being held for six Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday and two Israeli soldiers who died in clashes over the past two days.
The latest deaths brought to 210 the number killed since the bloodletting was unleashed by a controversial visit by Israeli hardline opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.
Barak, en route to Washington for talks with US President Bill Clinton, had turned back and was heading for home after the hijacking of a Russian plane that landed in Israel at dawn.
But the prime minister later decided to continue for Washington after the lone hijacker surrendered at the remote Uvda military airbase in Israel's southern Negev desert and all 58 passengers and crew were released unharmed.
David Ziso, a spokesman for Barak, said the prime minister himself, who was in London when the drama unfolded, had given the authorization for the plane to land in Israel.
"He then decided to return to the United States given the positive developments in the matter", Ziso told AFP.
Barak's security advisor Danny Yatom said the meeting would be taking place at 2200 GMT.
The plane was seized overnight on scheduled flight to Moscow from the Russian autonomous republic of Dagestan, which borders the war-torn north Caucasus republic of Chechnya, and a top aide to Barak had earlier suggested the hijack could be linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Barak however, last week expressed little hope that his talks with Clinton would succeed in ending the violence that has left the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in tatters.
"I am pessimistic about the chances of re-launching the political process with the Palestinians after my meeting with Clinton," he said Friday.
Violence continued on Sunday.
A bomb exploded by a road near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip as two carloads of settlers were passing, causing no casualties but damaging the vehicles, an army spokesman said.
Palestinian residents of the Arab village of Beit Jala between Jerusalem and Bethlehem also reported that Israeli tanks had fired shells from the nearby Jewish settlement of Gilo, setting one house ablaze.
The army had earlier reported that Palestinians also opened fire on Israeli cars and buses traveling between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, without causing injury.
Palestinian sources said a group calling itself the "Hussein Abayat brigade" claimed responsibility for the shootings.
Hussein Abayat, 37, a military official of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fateh group, was killed by an Israeli helicopter gunship on Thursday which the Israelis said deliberately targeted him.
The army spokesman also said two Israeli soldiers killed in clashes Friday near Bethlehem and Saturday in the Gaza Strip would be buried Sunday.
The funerals for two Palestinians killed in a late night shelling by Israel of el-Bireh north of the West Bank town of Ramallah were taking place on Sunday, another in Hebron and three others in the Gaza Strip -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
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