A Palestinian youth was killed Friday by Israeli troops and more than a dozen others were injured as clashes surged Friday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip just 48 hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon departs for his first US visit, said reports.
During his visit, the hard-liner will try to persuade the US administration that the Palestinians are to blame for the hostilities, said reports.
Mohammed Abu Awn, 20, was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes near the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian hospital officials also reported Friday that soldiers shot and wounded three Palestinians in a separate incident near the crossing.
During a rally by the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza City, the movement vowed to continue its fight against Israel, said Haaretz newspaper.
Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the demonstration held in memory of 13-year-old Mohammad Helles who was killed by Israeli troops near a crossing between Gaza and Israel earlier in the month.
In the West Bank, Palestinians marched in protest over Israel’s blockade of Ramallah and over stringent travel restrictions imposed by the army, said the paper.
Palestinians reported nine protesters injured in Ramallah where troops fired rubber-coated metal bullets and teargas in an effort to disperse several hundred Palestinian demonstrators.
Protest marches were also held in the cities of Tulkarm and Nablus, but no clashes were reported, according to Haaretz.
In a further easing of West Bank restrictions, Israel’s defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer announced Friday that the Allenby Bridge linking the West Bank to Jordan would be open during the day to allow people and goods through, added the paper.
Friday’s clashes come as Sharon continues his preparations ahead of his trip to the US where he meets President George Bush on Tuesday. According to the paper, Sharon plans to tell the Americans that he is drawing a distinction between the Palestinian Authority, which he holds responsible for the violence and which he intends treating harshly, and the civilian population in the territories for whom he would like to ease conditions as much as possible.
Sharon plans to present Bush with evidence that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is encouraging and directing “terror,” Haaretz added.
One of Sharon’s concerns ahead of the visit, is what appears to be a US effort to link the situation in the territories to the Iraqi front – a policy that could result in pressure on Israel, according to the Israeli paper. Continued violence in the West Bank and Gaza, or further deterioration, the US believes, is likely to make it more difficult for it to cobble together an anti-Saddam coalition in the Middle East.
Israel Radio quoted senior diplomatic sources in Jerusalem on Friday saying that Sharon will endeavor to sever this linkage during his upcoming trip.
Meanwhile, the paper said that Sharon also intends to ask Bush to step up sanctions on Syria by imposing the full range of punitive measures that exist under American law regarding states that support “terror.” "Government sources in Jerusalem said that Sharon’s decision to ask the US to increase its pressure on Syria was due largely to the fact that Syrian support for Hizbollah has increased under President Bashar Assad beyond the level that existed during the tenure of his late father, Hafez Assad," a source told the paper.
He added that Sharon will tell the Americans that Assad’s support for Hizbollah threatens the stability of the region, and he will also ask them to press Lebanon to deploy its army in the south, a step it has refrained from taking ever since the Israeli army withdrew in May last year – Albawaba.com
