Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a rare telephone call Saturday to put an end to six months of violence, as the Palestinian leadership denounced Israeli plans to expand settlement buildings, said reports.
Arafat had called Sharon, along with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and left-wing opposition leader Yossi Sarid, to express best wishes for the Jewish feast of the Passover, which began late Saturday, said Haaretz newspaper.
"Mr. Sharon thanked him, and on this occasion, reaffirmed that Israel is demanding a complete end to Palestinian terrorist acts," a spokesman for the prime minister said.
Palestinian officials confirmed Arafat's call to Sharon but declined to give details, said AFP.
Arafat arrived late Saturday in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to focus on escalating violence in the Middle East, the official MENA agency said, cited by AFP.
Overnight, the Palestinian leadership issued a statement denouncing Israel's plans to build 708 new Jewish homes in the occupied territories, and said settlements "are the most serious form of aggression against the Palestinian people," according to a statement, cited by Haaretz.
"We will continue to defend our land and our lives against Israeli occupation and colonization, which are cancers," said the statement issued after a meeting of Arafat's cabinet.
The Palestinians were reacting to an announcement by the Israeli housing ministry Thursday that had called for tenders for the construction of 708 new homes in two settlements in the West Bank.
The move was condemned as a provocation by the United States in an unusual blast at Israel, as well as by the European Union, France and the pro-peace lobby in Israel.
"Security and stability cannot be achieved while settlement eats up Palestinian land," the Palestinians charged. "Continued settlement building torpedoes all efforts towards resuming peace negotiations and violates all signed agreements."
The statement called on the members of the international community "who consider settlements to be an illegal and provocative measure and an obstacle to peace, to act within the United Nations Security Council to ensure protection for the Palestinian people."
But Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin told Haaretz that the "biased criticism and the attempts to put pressure on Israel can only encourage Yasser Arafat to continue in the path of terrorism and violence."
"The Europeans would do better to press Yasser Arafat to renounce terrorism in order to restart negotiations," Gissin said, avoiding mentioning the reproof from the United States.
Gissin said the new homes would be built at existing settlements, adding, "we have every right to construct inside the limits of existing implantation to respond to demographic growth."
He also responded to US criticism of an incident last week when Israeli soldiers fired on a Palestinian official convoy heading back from a joint security meeting, saying the Palestinian Authority was responsible and was exploiting it.
"We regret this incident, but it was the direct result of the Palestinian Authority's refusal to fight against terrorism while the security services that are part of it participate themselves in violence," Gissin said.
"Israeli soldiers opened fire toward the convoy only because the Palestinians had earlier fired in their direction from a jeep that was part of the convoy or from a field in the sector," Gissin said.
"We have no intention of hurting Palestinians with whom we intend to engage in a dialogue and cooperation," he said.
In the past 10 days Israeli helicopter gunships have attacked bases of Palestinian security forces, notably in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinians have hit settlements and other targets with mortar bombs in tit-for-tat actions which show no sign of ending.
In the latest clashes, Palestinians on Saturday night reportedly fired on a southern Israeli army outpost on the Egyptian border next to Rafah, and at an outpost next to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, said Haaretz.
Palestinians reportedly threw bombs on the road to the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif.
In response, Israeli tanks fired at Palestinian houses, injuring two, one seriously, reported Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
The TV report added that three Palestinians were injured by Israeli rubber bullets in Gaza, one seriously.
In another development, the National and Islamic Forces in the West Bank city of Jenin reached an agreement with security apparatus of the Palestinian Authority in which all Palestinian political prisoners from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other organizations will be released from the jail in Jenin, Israel Radio reported, cited by Haaretz.
West Bank Islamic Jihad leader Iyad Hardan was killed Thursday afternoon when a device exploded as he spoke on his usual public pay phone, directly outside the Jenin jail where he was being held.
According to Israel Radio, some Hamas and Islamic Jihad members are jailed in PA prisons in Nablus and Gaza.
In Hebron, a Palestinian shepherd was beaten to death by Israeli border police, but the Israeli army denied that members of the border police were involved in the attack – Albawaba.com
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