Seven Palestinians were killed and dozens of others were wounded Friday as Palestinians marked one year since the start of the latest Intifada against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, said reports.
The escalation in the Occupied Territories came despite an agreement Wednesday between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to implement a ceasefire.
On Friday night, the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that three Palestinians were killed and three injured, two seriously, in mysterious explosion in Rafah.
Palestinian security officials were quoted by the Tel-Aviv based Haaretz newspaper as saying that they were looking into the possibility that the three killed were laying an explosive to be detonated against Israeli troops.
The Israeli army said that they were on their way to placing an explosive device.
Earlier Friday evening, an Islamic Jihad activist, Yasser a-Nadhimi, 30, was killed in southern Hebron, apparently while he was preparing an explosive device, said the paper.
The circumstances of his death are still unclear, and Palestinian security forces have begun investigating the incident, it added.
Also in Hebron, Palestinians and Israeli troops reportedly exchanged gunfire during which one Palestinian was killed.
According to the paper, Palestinians detonated three explosive devices near Israeli army troops in the Bethlehem area Friday.
One of the explosions took place next to the West Bank village of el-Khadr, in PA-controlled Area A.
The Israeli army returned fire, killing a 17-year-old Palestinian, Haaretz said, adding that a ten-year-old Palestinian boy was also killed during clashes with Israeli troops at a neighboring village.
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated after Friday prayers in several towns in the territories, including at the Ayosh Junction, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Demonstrations also took place in Gaza and Khan Yunis, where hundreds of people chanted anti-occupation slogans.
At the Muntar Junction in Gaza, Palestinian demonstrators threw rocks at an Israeli army outpost.
PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP ACCUSES ISRAEL OF ‘REFUSING’ CEASEFIRE
The Palestinian leadership accused Israel late Friday of "refusing" international efforts to consolidate a Mideast ceasefire and returning to its military escalation in the occupied territories, in a statement published by WAFA.
"The ceasefire calls for urgent measures on the part of Israel to end its military escalation, immediately lift its military, security and economic blockade of the territories, withdraw its tanks and roadblocks," it said in a statement after its weekly meeting here chaired by Arafat.
The first anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada on Friday was marked as one of the bloodiest days in the fighting, as seven Palestinians were killed and more than 70 injured in an explosion of rage against Israel.
The leadership, which also includes Palestinian lawmakers and the executive of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also accused Israel of resisting international efforts to restore calm in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The repeated military escalation indicates a refusal by the Israeli government to the international efforts," it said.
It charged amid Friday's violence that Israel wants to scupper a very shaky ceasefire in place since September 18, as well as a tentative peace accord signed by Arafat and Peres on Wednesday.
"This escalation took place in the context of a military tactic aimed at causing the failure of every agreement in the ceasefire, notably the one between Chairman Arafat and Shimon Peres," the statement said – Albawaba.com
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