Three more Palestinians have been killed on the West Bank, jeopardising attempts to bring an end to five weeks of unrest and sustain the fragile truce agreed between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government. There were numerous stone-throwing protests in the Palestinian territories, and the Israeli army said it exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen in at least three places.
Despite numerous incidents there was believed to have been a decline in the overall level and intensity of the violence. A senior Israeli spokesman acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority was endeavouring to defuse the protests. "It is true there is gunfire and it is true there are still clashes," the Prime Minister's security adviser, Mr Danny Yatom, told Israel Radio. "Along with this I assess, from what I know, there are attempts on the Palestinian side and there is an intention to establish calm on the ground." A 21-year-old Palestinian was shot dead during stone-throwing protests in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. There were conflicting reports as to whether Mr Nahid Fathi al-Louh was shot in the chest or in the back. The Israeli army said its forces had not opened fire in the disturbance. "If he was killed, it was not from our shooting," an army spokesman said.
A second Palestinian, Mr Mahmoud Abdel Jawad as-Said (19), was shot in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Arab village of Hizma near Jerusalem and died in hospital in the West Bank town of Ramallah, medical officials said. His death followed the funeral of a 17-year-old youth who was shot dead by Israeli troops in Hizma on Thursday.
Rami Ahmad al-Aslit (15) died this morning of wounds sustained in clashes yesterday in the West Bank village of Hizma.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel at one point deployed tanks near the Karni crossing point amid clashes there in which 10 Palestinians were wounded, one seriously. The tanks remained on the Israeli side of the border, but other armoured vehicles moved on to the Palestinian side, occupying a location where tanks had been stationed the previous week. The Israeli army said it later withdrew its vehicles.
Inside Israel, security forces were on alert to prevent a repetition of Thursday's bomb at a Jerusalem market which killed two people. Late on Thursday night, Israel had given the Palestinians 24 hours to restore calm, but Palestinians responded that it was up to Israel to defuse tension by pulling back from trouble spots and lifting checkpoints outside cities and towns in the territories. Meanwhile, the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is expected to visit Washington for talks with President Clinton, the Palestinian negotiator, Mr Saeb Erekat, said yesterday. "We hope to announce this afternoon the date on which President Arafat will be arriving in Washington to meet President Clinton and others," he told reporters after talks with the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, and US mediators between Israel and the Palestinians.
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced it had launched an emergency operation to help about 300,000 Palestinians badly hit by the period of unrest and violence. The agency is spending approximately $200,000 to get the scheme in operation but it hopes to receive more funding from donors to support the three-month programme.
--(Additional reporting by Reuters)