Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended Monday the tightening of a much criticized noose around the West Bank city of Ramallah, as a Palestinian protest against the closure deteriorated into deadly violence killing a Palestinian and injuring tens others, said reports.
A member of the Palestinian military intelligence was killed, apparently by a sniper's bullet, reported Haaretz newspaper, adding that at least 50 others were wounded, 16 of them hospitalized when Israeli troops fired on Palestinians demonstrating near Ramallah against the closure.
Sharon aides said they believed the closure would be eased in the coming days, said Haaretz.
The prime minister told Likud MKs "there was no need for all the noise" about the closure, which he said was imposed due to the arrests of some Palestinians from Qalandiya, who apparently told interrogators a car-bombing was being planned for Jerusalem.
The paper added that while the Ramallah siege remained in place, closures were lifted on four other Palestinians towns, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Qalqilya and Hebron.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the siege of Ramallah would also have been lifted, had the government not learned that a Palestinian group there intended to plant the car-bomb, said the daily.
Palestinian activists have designated Wednesday and Friday as "days of rage," to be marked by confrontations with Israeli troops, according to the paper.
"If Sharon thinks that through such procedures, he can bring the Palestinian people to their knees or bow to him, then he is living in illusions," said Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian parliament speaker.
Other Palestinians in Ramallah noted the city's closure had brought out demonstrators who had not been seen in months. "Sharon brought back the grass roots character of the Intifada, and returned the students to the struggle," said one of the Bir Zeit professors in the march on the Ramallah checkpoint Monday.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush has told American Jewish leaders that the United States regards an end to Palestinian violence as a "test" of their readiness to head in the direction of peace, reported The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
But the US State Department said Israel's attempts to end Palestinian violence through economic pressures do nothing to enhance security in the region but cause hardship for Palestinian families.
State's spokesman Richard Boucher made the comment while renewing his appeal to Israel to release tax revenues withheld from Palestinians and to ease restrictions on movement by Palestinians, said the Post.
The Palestinian economy has lost 1.15 billion dollars since September, or 20 percent of its gross domestic product, according to UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.
"We'll continue to be concerned about the situation as we look to steps that they can take to, as I said, end the violence, break out of the cycle of violence, as well as ease some of the economic plight of the Palestinians who are in dire straits these days," Boucher said.
In another development., Arab foreign ministers have renewed an appeal for an international protection force for the Palestinians and warned the United States against moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, said AFP.
The foreign ministers were meeting into the early hours of Tuesday at Arab League headquarters here to prepare for an Arab summit in Amman on March 27, which is expected to focus on the Palestinian uprising against Israel and the crumbling UN sanctions on Iraq.
"Arab countries together address the United Nations Security Council, asking it to meet immediately to study ways to set up an international force to protect the Palestinian people," the Arab League said in a statement, quoted by the agency.
A senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, said the United States would find it hard to justify vetoing possible future UN resolutions sending an international force to protect the Palestinians.
"We're expecting to get the support of 10 (out of the 15) members of the Security Council" for the force, Shaath said without elaborating.
The ministers also decided to lobby the United States, Russia and the European Union to take a stand against Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territories.
In Gaza, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said Monday after a meeting with Arafat that the European Union (EU) will do everything it can to promote the Middle East peace process, according to AFP.
"We will also discuss with (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon the possibility of continued peace talks and to stop this situation as we can see right now", said Lindh, whose country is the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
