Two Palestinians were shot dead and at least 42 injured, one seriously, during clashes Sunday between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, hospital officials said.
Those killed were hit by live rounds, hospital sources said.
Maher Mohamed Aseidi, 16, was hit in the head near the Bureij refugee camp and died at the Shifa hospital Sunday morning in Gaza City.
Marwan Khalil Al-Ghamri, 28, was shot in the heart in the afternoon during clashes in Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the officials said.
Their deaths bring to 179 the number of people killed since violence erupted September 28. The majority of the dead have been Palestinians.
Mohamed al-Shaer, 16, was said to be in serious condition in a hospital in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, after being hit by a live round in the left of the chest.
The Israeli army denied firing live rounds Sunday, saying only rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas were used.
At least 42 people were injured in the Gaza Strip clashes, hospital sources said -- eight at Erez, the main crossing point to Israel in the north, 13 at Karni, a crossing used mainly by Jewish settlers near Gaza City, one at Bureij refugee camp, 14 on the edge of the southern city of Khan Yunis, four near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, and two at Rafah, the southern crossing to Egypt.
Witnesses said there was an exchange of fire in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron in the afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
The violence that has swept the Palestinian territories since September 28 appeared to be waning following a truce agreed on Thursday between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel's former prime minister Shimon Peres, and ahead of meetings planned for Barak and Arafat with US President Bill Clinton in Washington.
Peres said earlier Sunday he thought the Palestinian leader was sincerely trying to end weeks of violence.
"Yasser Arafat is making sincere efforts to reduce the scale of the rioting, but he is not in control of everything and it will take several days before, I hope, these efforts bear fruit," Peres told Israeli public radio
Palestinians Mark 40th Day of Intifada
Thousands of Palestinians, among them their leader Yasser Arafat, gathered in the city center here Sunday to mark the 40th day of their Initifada, or uprising, against Israel and to mourn those killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
Some 4,000 people, many of them family of those killed, gathered at a special "mourning house" -- a tented structure erected on Arafat's instructions in the city's main park -- where they denounced Israel and chanted, "We are going to Jerusalem in our millions."
Palestinian Authority secretary-general Tayeb Abdel Rahim, told the gathering that the Intifada would continue.
"Your voice was heard throughout the world, which said that there can be no peace and no security in the region without Palestinians being given their national rights," he said.
The first of these rights, he added, was "the establishment of an independent state with the capital in Jerusalem." The second, he said, was the refugees' right of return to the Palestinian territories.
"We still choose a just and comprehensive peace, but (the Israelis) are trying to destroy that peace in their aggression and by choosing all kinds of weapons, including helicopters, heavy weapons, live rounds and teargas that is banned internationally," Rahim said.
"We have persevered (for 40 days) ... and our clear message remains, the Intifada will continue until Jerusalem is returned."
The Intifada began on September 28, when Israeli rightwing leader Ariel Sharon visited the hotly disputed al-Aqsa mosque holy site in Jerusalem, despite warnings there would be a backlash by Palestinians – (AFP)
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