Clashes erupted on Wednesday as Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza Strip held demonstrations to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of a UN resolution on the partition of Palestine.
Israeli soldiers shot and wounded four Palestinians who had been pelting them with stones at the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
In Rafah along the Egyptian border, medical officials said one Palestinian was hurt by shrapnel from a single Israeli rocket fired from a nearby army position.
Clashes also erupted at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, but without reports of injuries.
Overnight, the Israeli army reported sporadic shooting incidents between armed Palestinians and Israeli troops near Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but said there were no injuries.
On Wednesday, several hundred demonstrators held a peaceful march in Gaza City calling on Palestinians to boycott Israeli and US-made goods to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and their uprising, which has entered its third month.
Several dozen foreign women married to Palestinians also marched in Gaza City and delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging him to send international forces to protect the Palestinians.
In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, a Palestinian gunman shot at Israeli soldiers guarding Joseph's Tomb, a Jewish shrine in the Palestinian-run town, but without causing any injuries, witnesses said.
In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, hundreds of Palestinians prepared to hold a march to express support for the Palestinian Intifada, but it was not immediately clear if they intended to head towards Israeli checkpoints on the outskirts of the city, which have been frequent deadly flashpoints.
On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly called on the British mandate territory of Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, but it was rejected by the Arabs – GAZA CITY (AFP)
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