A 14-year-old Palestinian girl was killed on Saturday during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, medical workers said. According to Reuters, locals said Israeli tanks entered the town and clashed with the Palestinians.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the incursion and said the army carried out an air strike against gunmen in the area. One fighters was seriously wounded in the air strike, medical workers said.
Abbas - Bush talks
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and he is returning home with little to show for his visit. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving any deal with Israel this year.
"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas conveyed.
On Thursday, Abbas asked Bush to tighten American monitoring over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. "We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," Abbas said, expressing disappointment the U.S. has not exerted more pressure on Israel to stop. "This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."
Abbas' aides said he was also upset after his lunch Thursday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "We demanded that they talk about the '67 borders," Abbas told AP. "None of them talks about the '67 borders."
Asked whether U.S. officials offered any new U.S. proposals, Abbas said no. "They are exerting efforts. And we are still negotiating," he said, but he noted that no progress had been made on any of the core issues. "All the files are still open. None of them are concluded. The situation is still as it was," Abbas said.
