Palestinian and Israeli security officers are due to hold a security meeting Tuesday amid seemingly unstoppable tit-for-tat attacks.
Two Palestinians suicide bombers were killed by Israeli soldiers Tuesday afternoon in the Gaza Strip, said Haaretz newspaper.
The two Palestinians approached an Israeli outpost near the Neve Dekalim industrial area, said the paper, adding that one of the Palestinians blew himself up near the gate of the outpost, while the other began throwing grenades at the soldiers who returned fire.
The paper said that two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the attack.
One was lightly injured, while the other had only light wounds, Haaretz said, adding that they were both evacuated to a nearby hospital.
Earlier, two Israelis were killed, and others wounded; meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed and seven others were injured by the Israeli occupation troops' fire.
In the West Bank, an Israeli woman was killed and four others injured in a shooting incident which took place near the Jewish settlement of Neve Daniel, Israel radio reported, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian died of injuries he sustained when an Israeli special unit opened fire at car passengers in Jericho earlier in the day.
The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, identified the victim as Ahmed Halilo. Two others were injured in the ambush, while five Palestinian police officers were injured when Israeli troops shelled the headquarters of Palestinian National Security in Al Meghraqa neighborhood, reported Al Jazeera satellite channel.
The Israeli army reported that soldiers had fired on a group of men placing an explosive device on the road between the Martyrs and Muntar crossing points between Gaza and Israel, said Haaretz.
The Israeli radio said that the injured settlers were in a car when they were apparently shot by Palestinian gunmen from a passing vehicle.
Following the incident, the tunnel road connecting Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion has been closed off, the radio added.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli was killed while he was driving in the village of Jitt, east of the settlement of Kedumim in the West Bank city of Nablus, reported Al Jazeera satellite channel.
Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the killing of Gilad Zer, a security officer of the settlement of Shomron.
Zer, who was seriously wounded two months ago when gunmen fired on his car south of Nablus, was shot in the head, and died of his wounds on the way to hospital, said Haaretz.
Israel Radio reported that after shooting at the car, the gunmen approached the vehicle and fired at Zer again.
Enraged settler leaders called on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end the limited unilateral ceasefire he declared last week.
"Sharon says the ceasefire is helping Israel to win (diplomatic) points," said settler leader Yisrael Harel. "Meanwhile, Jews are continuing to get killed so we can look good for a day or two."
The fresh tension erupted despite US-mediated security talks between Israel and the Palestinians scheduled for Tuesday.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, Reuters reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 88 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs.
In the same time period, according to Reuters, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 448 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin, "The F-16 has been able to incorporate the latest in targeting pods and weapons."
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is "arguably the most important intellectual alive," has been quoted as saying: "State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it."
FATEH ACTIVISTS KIDNAP TWO FOREIGN JOURNALISTS
Three foreign journalists were released Tuesday after being kidnapped by the military wing of Fateh faction, “Fateh Hawks” in the Gaza Strip.
They were kidnapped for about five hours.
The group in a statement said that the kidnapping was a “message to US and British authorities.”
“You have to bear the consequences of your biased stand with the Israelis,” said the statement, published on the Palestinian Information Center.
The group “threatened that US and British nationals in Palestine and the Arab world will be subject to murder and kidnapping as long as the US and British authorities continue to support the killer Sharon.”
Earlier, Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan however doubted that the Fateh Hawks were behind the abduction, said Haaretz.
Other Palestinian officials said “it was possible another renegade Palestinian group was using the Hawks's name.
PALESTINIAN, ISRAELI SECURITY OFFICIALS TO MEET TUESDAY
Israeli and Palestinian security officials will attend Tuesday US-mediated security talks in a sign that a new, enhanced American effort to end eight months of bloodshed is making progress, said reports.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat agreed to send representatives to the US-hosted meetings after a second round of talks on Monday with the new US Middle East envoy, William Burns.
The envoy later met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
An Israeli official said the meeting would be the first of two, with the second taking place on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip.
In Washington, Richard Roth, acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, said the United States supported Israeli-Palestinian security talks, Reuters quoted him as saying.
"We think that any effort to bring down the violence would be positive, including a meeting of the responsible security officials from both sides," he said in a telephone interview.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters that "Tuesday's meeting will deal with violence in the West Bank and Wednesday's would focus on Gaza Strip fighting."
Meanwhile, reports said that Arafat had rejected Israel's demand for him to declare a ceasefire and to give orders to his forces to stop firing.
This message was passed on by Burns in his meeting with Sharon, said Haaretz newspaper.
Despite Arafat's refusal to declare a ceasefire, Sharon plans to continue with the limited unilateral ceasefire for now, according to Haaretz.
But the Israeli government has warned that "if Palestinian terrorist attacks continue, it will cast aside the restraint it has exercised since Sharon ordered a unilateral ceasefire last week," the Israeli paper said.
ARAFAT TO URGE MOSCOW TO TAKE GREATER ROLE IN MIDEAST
Arafat arrived in Moscow late Monday to urge Russian officials to play a greater role in the Middle East, reported the Russian news agency, Novosty.
"The negotiators will debate Yasser Arafat's recent initiative for last year's Sharm El Sheikh participants to meet again, with Russia and the Mitchell commission represented," said Khairi Al Oridi, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia.
The ambassador expects the summit agenda to include transnational arrangements to implement commission plans for a peaceful Mideast settlement, said the agency.
Asked about Israeli insistence on Palestine offering security guarantees, Al Oridi pointed out that Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and all other parties to the Mideastern process needed security on a par with Israel, said Novosty.
"As we see it, both parties will gain with Yasser Arafat's visit," said the ambassador as he presented the Palestinian leader's Moscow schedule. It includes negotiations with Igor Ivanov, Russia's minister of foreign affairs, and --tentatively -- conferences with President Vladimir Putin and His Beatitude Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
Meanwhile, the agency said that Moscow came out against calling a Madrid-2 conference on the Middle East settlement.
Ivanov told a Moscow press conference Monday that the conference would mean revising agreement reached at the first Madrid conference--resolutions 242 and 338--which are actually the cornerstone of further settlement.
As Arafat's visit, Ivanov remarked that priority now is to put an end to bloodshed and create conditions for re-starting the peace process. Ivanov believes it expedient that the world community.
In his opinion, the well-reasoned Egypt-Jordan initiative deserves attention in this connection along with some of the Mitchell commission's proposals.
According to Ivanov, Moscow reckons that the sides should sit down to the negotiating table to draw up measures to be implemented, whereas the international community should become the guarantor of the attained agreements -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
