A Palestinian man was killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in the flashpoint town of Hebron in the southern West Bank Friday, Palestinian security sources said, quoted by AFP.
Ten other Palestinians were injured in the clashes which killed 25-year-old Imam Mohammad Rashad Al Sharif.
And in Ramallah, 17-year-old Mohsan Arar died overnight from injuries sustained in clashes last Friday in the West Bank town, when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head, said the agency.
Arar's funeral in Ramallah was attended by around 6,000 people who observed three minutes silence during the procession to mark the first anniversary of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, as sirens wailed across the town to signal the moment.
Tensions were high and Israeli security tight Friday on the first anniversary of a Palestinian uprising that has seen more than 800 people, most of them Palestinians, die.
Despite a cease-fire accord pushed through this week by the United States as it tries to bring the Muslim world on board in its struggle against global terrorism, violence flared on the eve of the anniversary, leaving at least five Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera satellite channel reported Thursday night that the day’s death toll rose to seven, including a mentally ill young man who was riddled with bullets as he approached an Israeli military post in Rafah, and a 14-year-old teenager.
More than 30 others were wounded during an Israeli tank incursion into the Rafah Palestinian-controlled area, a move that angered Washington and cast a pall over the first joint security meeting to be held since July 25.
Al Jazeera correspondent in the West Bank also reported that a large area of Palestinian farmlands in the Jordan Valley were bulldozed by Jewish settlers under the protection of the army.
In response to the incursion, said AFP, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called on both sides to "break with past practices" but singled out Israel for particular reprimand, calling the incursions "provocative acts that can only escalate tensions and undermine efforts to bring about a lasting halt to violence."
The developments apparently prompted US Secretary of State Colin Powell to call Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Thursday night.
The Palestinian news agency (WAFA) cited Arafat’s top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina as saying the twp men discussed the latest development in the palestinian lands, and in particular the incursion into Rafah .
The incursions started just hours after Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister met in Gaza Wednesday to sign an accord aimed at getting the deadlocked peace process back on track.
In the first concrete move to result from the signing, Israel and the Palestinians were holding high-level security talks at a secret location to address issues surrounding the implementation of the truce deal.
But Israel held out little hope for the meeting.
Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof said on public radio that Israeli "security officials and the army are pessimistic about the will of Yasser Arafat to implement the ceasefire, but we must give this accord a chance."
Army spokesman Yarden Vatikai said Israel would re-submit a list of wanted Palestinian militants who, under the deal, the Palestinians are meant to arrest.
"But we've been giving them this list for a year now without the Palestinian Authority doing a thing to stop the terrorism and violence," he said.
Arafat's authorities "have not lifted a finger against the Islamists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who are calling for attacks to continue," he said.
Palestinians were to observe three minutes silence at midday (1000 GMT) for their 635 countrymen who died in the year of unrest, sparked when opposition leader and now Prime Minister Areil Sharon made a controversial visit to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
Security was tight in Jerusalem, a city claimed by both sides as their capital, with Muslim worshippers allowed only limited access to the mosque compound, which is built on top of the remains of the Jewish temple, the holiest site in Judaism.
Israeli police threw a tight security cordon around the complex and allowed only men of 40 and older and in possession of a valid Israeli identity card to enter.
The restriction thus banned entry to all Palestinians living in the West Bank, except those who live in the Arab east Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel.
In the Palestinian territories, demonstrations were expected to commemorate the martyrs of the uprising.
Over the weekend, demonstrations to be staged by the Palestinian Authority and other groups. Israeli forces are mainly on alert for Palestinian attacks on soldiers and settlers in the territories and less for suicide attacks over the Green Line inside Israel, according to Haaretz – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
