A Palestinian security officer was killed by Israeli gunfire today and at least 36 others including a 12-year-old boy were injured, Palestinian sources said, as tensions spread in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Clashes erupted after weekly Friday prayers across the Palestinian territories just hours after the shooting death of Mr Osama Hassan Selim, a 25-year-old rank-and-file officer posted at a Palestinian security checkpoint in the southern Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said there had been an exchange of fire between the Israeli army and unidentified armed Palestinians not far from Deir al-Balah, where Mr Selim died, a half-hour before his shooting, but that Palestinian security were not involved.
Mr Selim's death brought to 443 the toll of killings since the uprising broke out in the region nearly six months ago: 363 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs, 66 other Israelis and one German.
Thousands of people turned out for his funeral at the Martyr's Cemetery in Gaza later today, some of them vowing revenge against Israel for his death.
Shortly later, a convoy carrying Amnesty International secretary general Mr Pierre Sane was fired on by an Israeli army stun grenade as toured the southern Gaza Strip, an official from the human rights organisation said.
Mr Kamal Samari, who was travelling with Sane, said the attack, which did not injure anyone, "looked like it was deliberate."
Mr Nabil Abu Rudeina, Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's top adviser, said today that Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon must choose between a policy of threats and a policy of peace, rejecting Sharon's recent remarks branding Arafat a "terrorist."
A delegation of MPs from European countries meanwhile urged both sides to work for an "immediate end" to the violence after a four-day tour of the troubled region.
Seventeen more injured Palestinians were added to the list of casualties on Friday when Israeli troops shot rubber bullets at around 100 stone-throwers in clashes north of El Bireh in the West Bank.
Another 13 Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured by live gunfire from Israeli tanks in the Muntar region of the northern Gaza Strip, near the Karni border crossing with Israel, as around 70 teenagers threw stones at army positions, medical sources and witnesses said.
Another five people were injured in clashes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis this afternoon.
In central Hebron in the West Bank, one Palestinian was injured by a rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops in another clash that broke out after the weekly Friday prayers.
Meanwhile, Ezzedin al-Qassam, the armed wing of the Islamic militant movement Hamas, claimed three separate mortar attacks on Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip in the past week, in the first admission it possesses such weapons.
In a separate development, Palestinian security officials said they had found the body of a Palestinian man in a valley by the West Bank village of Baytillo northwest of Ramallah today, but said they did not know the circumstances of his death.
Medical sources said the man's head had been badly beaten and that he had died around three days ago, identifying him as Mr Jaber Hamdan al-Hanadsheh, from Hebron, in his 40s.
AFP