Clashes in Jerusalem as peace hangs in balance

PALESTINIANS and Israelis exchanged fire in Jerusalem last night and a Palestinian man was shot dead on the West Bank as prospects…

PALESTINIANS and Israelis exchanged fire in Jerusalem last night and a Palestinian man was shot dead on the West Bank as prospects for a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis continued to fade.

In Jerusalem, tracer bullets could be seen in the night sky asthe two sides battled over the disputed Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of the city.

The 45-year-old Palestinian man was killed during a shootout with Israeli soldiers in the divided West Bank town of Hebron, hospital officials said. It was the first death reported during a day of sporadic clashes. In the Gaza Strip, Jewish settlers in a convoy of cars escaped injury when a roadside bomb exploded near Netzanim. The political leadership of Israel was divided between a military and diplomatic approach. Politicians seemed undecided whether they should try in the longer term to suppress or defuse what is becoming known as the Second Intifada (uprising), recalling a previous Palestinian revolt in 1987-93.

The disputed Gilo settlement in Jerusalem was founded on territory gained by Israel in the 1967 war but the occupation has never been accepted by the Palestinians. It was reported that Palestinians fired a machinegun last night from the West Bank village of Beit Jala at apartment buildings in Gilo. In response there was shelling and machinegun fire from Israeli tanks and witnesses said three Palestinians were slightly hurt.

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A previous gunbattle in the area late on Sunday night resulted in missiles being fired into Beit Jala from Israeli helicopter gunships. The Gilo settlement has a population of 35,000 and a stone wall separates it from Beit Jala.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, plans to visit the Palestinian areas as soon as possible. The visit was decided at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission which also called for an international inquiry into the violence of recent weeks in which more than 125 people had died.

The former president also hopes to visit Israel and other states in the region.

There were inconclusive talks yesterday, on the formation of a national emergency government in Israel to resist the Palestinian revolt, between the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the leader of the right-wing Likud party, Gen Ariel Sharon.

The talks are expected to resume today: Palestinians warned that a government with Gen Sharon's participation would be the "bullet of mercy" that killed the peace process.

However, the Israeli Justice Minister, Mr Yossi Beilin, said he hoped a government "would not be established" with the Likud and he remained hopeful another combination could be assembled in the Knesset.

Gen Sharon is accused by Palestinians of provoking the latest violence with a controversial visit last month to a holy site in Jerusalem which is sacred both to Jews and Muslims. The general said he regretted the current violence but denied any blame.

Meanwhile, Morocco announced it had severed diplomatic ties with Israel in protest at violence against civilians in the Palestinian territories.

In a statement, the official MAP news agency, spoke of "the failure of the peace process due to the Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians".