Palestinian youths want to open new war front on border

It was only a matter of time before unbridled Palestinian anger precipitated a conventional Israeli military assault on the self-rule enclaves of Ramallah and Gaza City. Anger is also boiling over in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Last Saturday, two Palestinians from the Beirut camps of Shatila and Burj al-Barajneh, were killed and 20 wounded on the Lebanon-Israel border during a demonstration protesting against Israel's response to the Palestinian rising or intifada. Twice since then Palestinian youths have hurled grenades and stones at Israeli soldiers across the frontier fence.

The UN spokesman, Mr Timor Goksel, said this is a very "dangerous development" as "the natural response of young Israeli soldiers is to shoot". A major incident could "spill over" from one location to others along the tense "blue line" manned by peacekeepers. But Palestinian youths do not care. They are prepared to dice with death to open a new war front on the frontier.

While visiting Bourj al-Barajneh, The Irish Times was told by Mr Saleh Shehadeh: "I don't care if I die. If I die, my brothers and friends will avenge me. What does it matter if thousands of us are killed? We Arabs are 200 million."

Ms Siham Abdel Razzak, headmistress at a kindergarten, said that poignant pictures of the 12-year-old boy, Muhammad Durra, killed by Israeli troops in Gaza, had created an explosive situation in Lebanon's camps. Another teacher, Ms Hanan Rabia, observed: "I wish Israel would hit some of the Arab countries - but not kill anyone - to show them they must support our people in Palestine. They must let us cross the borders to join the intifada."

A young man encountered in an alleyway, Mr Usamah Saleh, asserted: "We don't support [Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat any more. We back Hizbullah and [its Secretary General] Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. We hope to have a leader like him."

Ms Sitt Maryam Shehadeh, a handsome elderly woman in a kaftan and headscarf, invited me into her home to meet her daughter, Janette, whose leg was broken when she tried to help evacuate the dead and wounded during last Saturday's melee. "I was in front, so after the shooting stopped I tried to give them treatment but I fell," she said.

On the Lebanese side of the border there was a sustained burst of heavy and light machine-gun fire yesterday in the sensitive eastern sector of the UN zone. The incident, under investigation by the Indian battalion, took place between the villages of Kafr Shouba and Shebaa. Before this incident, all quiet had reigned along the "blue line". Comdt Joe McDonagh of the Irish battalion stated that the Irish area was "quiet" last night and "is reasonably stable." But no one knows what will happen.

The families of six Irish soldiers serving with the UN in Israel have been evacuated amid fears for their safety. They were due to fly to Geneva this morning and will arrive in Ireland tomorrow, a Defence Forces spokesman said. The soldiers, serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organisation at Jerusalem, Naharyalh and Tiberias, will remain to monitor the escalating conflict, he said.