Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian child in a Gaza Strip refugee camp during an overnight battle between armed Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, two bombs were defused by police in Haifa, northern Israel.
Ali Abu Shawish, 12, was killed by Israeli fire in the Al Amal neighborhood of the southern Gaza Strip's Khan Yunis refugee camp when a gunbattle erupted between armed Palestinians and the Israeli military, medical sources said, cited by AFP.
Four other Palestinians, including a child, were also wounded in the exchange of fire, the medical source said.
In Haifa, two bombs were detonated overnight after they were discovered in the saddlebags of a motorbike, Israeli public radio reported Monday, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
The bombs, uncovered by police volunteers during a routine patrol, were the first found on Israeli soil since a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday, the radio reported.
A second bomb was found and defused at an intersection near the West Bank city of Nablus, the radio said.
In the meantime, UN chief Kofi Annan vowed on the last leg of his Mideast tour Sunday that the international community would help Israel and the Palestinians get back on the path to peace.
But Annan, who flew to London in the afternoon having completed his tour of the region aimed at bolstering the truce, said the ceasefire should not be the only focus of efforts between Israel and the Palestinians, AFP said.
"The ceasefire is a good beginning, an important element of the entire process, but we need to have a timeline to make it clear that if we implement the ceasefire, this is not the end of the road," Annan told reporters after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
The UN secretary general said that he and the international community would continue to work with the two sides to try to achieve a lasting peace.
Annan's week-long trip has been marked by a sharp drop in violence following the ceasefire accord forged by CIA chief George Tenet.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sunday for more efforts to curb the violence, telling Fox television in the United States that the level had come down but "not as much as either side would like to see."
"We need a lot more progress," said Powell, who, according to the Palestinian agency WAFA, spoke on the phone to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who urged him to put pressure on Israel to implement the recommendations of the Tenet document aimed at bolstering the ceasefire.
On Saturday, Annan met separately with both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, urging them to "seize the moment" and work towards a lasting peace.
Peres said Annan had proposed a meeting with him and Arafat, but public radio reported that Sharon had rejected the offer on the grounds it could suggest the government had finally agreed to negotiate under fire.
And in a first sign of cracks in Sharon's multi-party right-wing dominated coalition, the radio reported that the hawkish prime minister and Nobel peace laureate Peres, a Labor stalwart, had clashed openly over the incident during a cabinet meeting.
The relative lull in the conflict was shaken early Sunday when Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip foiled a suicide attack attempt.
According to AFP, the attack was claimed by the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad, who said the bomber, who was seriously injured in the blast, had been sent to "foil Kofi Annan's attempts to sabotage the Intifada."
And in the West Bank, two soldiers were lightly injured when an explosive device was activated and shots were fired at an army vehicle near the northern town of Nablus, the army said, cited by Israeli media.
Nevertheless, there was a sign of renewed cooperation on the ground when Israeli and Palestinian liaison officers conducted a joint tour of an area around the flashpoint Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip to inspect implementation of the truce.
But a planned high-level security meeting Sunday between Israeli and Palestinian officials aimed at setting a timetable for further measures under the Tenet truce was delayed until Monday because the US representative was unable to attend, West Bank preventative security chief Jibril Rjoub said.
Rajoub added that the Palestinians wanted an agreement by Wednesday on a timetable for the lifting of Israel's choking blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- a move, he said, that would strengthen the ceasefire.
"If (there is no accord), then we will have a problem and the situation will be open for all options," he told reporters.
"If Israel will not implement the agreements and the ceasefire then the region will go back to the cycle of violence and bloodshed."
There has been little let-up in the bitter war of words between Israel and the Palestinians, each accusing the other of breaching the ceasefire.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 112 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” - Albawba.com
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