A Palestinian teenager was killed Sunday when Israeli troops opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators in a town west of the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian medics said.
Fuad Kamel Omar Jarwan, 18, was hit by at least two bullets in the shooting in Beita.
Also near Nablus, a Palestinian blew himself up Sunday morning in the village of Jinsafut and died, according to Israeli media reports. The Israeli military has launched an investigatiion into the incident. The village is west of Nablus, near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim.
Elsewhere, at least five Palestinians were arrested by Israeli troops early on Sunday in the West Bank town of Alyamoun, west of Jenin city, WAFA reported.
Meanwhile, senior Palestinian sources told a Kuwaiti daily in comments published Sunday that President Arafat is working on a new political initiative.
According to al-Qabas, in his new plan, Arafat is expected to call on holding an international conference, similar to that held in Madrid in 1991 that eventually led to the Oslo accords two years later.
The sources further said the new conference would reflect the opening of the final status negotiations in order to break the current cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Following the approval of his plan by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority will submit it as an official proposal to the next Arab summit, due to be held in March in Tunisia. It should be recalled that the Madrid conference marked the end of the first Palestinian uprising.
On Saturday, Arafat asserted during the Palestinian leadership meeting that the Palestinians have the right to declare an independent state on the lands occupied by the Israeli forces in 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital based on the international legitimacy resolutions.
The meeting, which included members of the Executive Committee of the PLO and representatives of the various Palestinian factions, and was headed by President Arafat, demanded that international forces or international monitoring teams be dispatched as soon as possible to protect the Palestinian people and the dwindling peace process, IPC reported.
The statement of the Palestinian leadership stressed on the importance of implementing the internationally-backed "Road Map" peace plan, along with the relevant agreements and UN resolutions.
"Israel is aggressively imposing its policies and measures in order to avert the implementation of the 'Road Map' plan as well as any other commitments that would push it to return back to the negotiations table, a thing that leaves no room for efforts of reviving the peace process," excerpts from the statement read. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
