The Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian driver near Gaza after they opened fire at the vehicle he was driving, reported Al Jazira satellite channel Wednesday afternoon.
The incident came amid expected escalation of the violence in the territories.
On the same day, an explosive device blew up near an Israeli army patrol in the Gaza Strip Wednesday morning, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The soldiers were inspecting a segment of the border fence south of the Kisufim crossing-point between Israel and the Gaza Strip when the device was detonated, leaving no injuries.
Earlier, the paper reported in its Internet edition that several bullets were fired, apparently, from the village of Silwad near Ramallah, hitting a passing Israeli vehicle.
The occupants of the car were unhurt, although the vehicle sustained some damage in the attack, said the Post, adding that the Israeli forces were searching the area in an effort to apprehend the assailants.
Overnight, the Israeli police arrested two Palestinians from the village of El Khader on the outskirts of Bethlehem claiming they organized and took parts in riots at the Tunnel road linking Jerusalem with the Gush Etzion settlement bloc to the south.
A police source said the two confessed to the deeds and implicated several other village residents in the riots that took place in recent days, said the Post.
Meanwhile, the mainstream POLO movement, Fateh, called Tuesday for an escalation of the Intifada, calling it the preferred option for liberation, said the Israeli daily. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Fateh leadership in the West Bank on Monday.
"The Taba talks were just a waist of time, an Israeli election ploy, nothing new came out of these talks," said Hussein Sheikh, a Fateh leader in the West Bank.
The call is not new as far as Fateh is concerned. The group, which has been since the outbreak of the Intifada four months ago steering the activities of the uprising together with 13 other factions gathered under the name “The Nationalist and Islamist Powers,” has adopted a hardline position that seems to be popular among the Palestinians and decisive factor in the national unity seen to be achieved by the Intifada.
According to a report by Haaretz on the same day, the Israeli army said it was predicting a serious escalation of violence in the Palestinian territories after the election for prime minister on February 6th.
A military spokesman was quoted by the paper as saying Tuesday that "already, there has been a sharp rise in the number of shooting and bombing incidents in the Gaza Strip.”
The spokesman cited a mortar shelling on Netzarim as an unprecedented escalation of the Palestinian anti-Israeli activities.
"For the first time, a mortar shell was fired at a settlement. The shell caused no injuries in Netzarim, but damaged a house," he said.
An explosion was heard by Palestinians in Gaza City, who said it was followed by heavy machine-gunfire from Israeli tanks on Palestinian areas, said AFP.
But a Palestinian security official denied the report, saying, "We fired no shells on Netzarim, and we don't know what the Israelis are talking about – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
