A Call to Arms

Palestinians Wounded, Israeli Dead in Renewed Violence

Oct. 28 - Israel remains on guard today after Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah called on the Palestinians to launch more suicide bombings.

Israeli troops drove back Palestinian stone throwers with
rubber-coated bullets and tear gas at chronic trouble spots in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, leaving more than 50 Palestinians wounded today.
Despite the multiple clashes, live gunfire was relatively scarce and
no one was killed, one of the few such days since the violence first
erupted exactly one month earlier.
One shootout did erupt this evening as Palestinian militants and
Israeli soldiers traded gunshots in the West Bank town of Jenin. A
Palestinian was shot in the neck, witnesses said. The new clashes came a
day after violence flared up, ending a brief lull in a month of fighting
that has claimed 133 lives - the vast majority Palestinians - and left
thousands injured.
An Israeli was shot and his body burned near the volatile West Bank
town of Ramallah, according to Palestinian officials. They said the man
was allegedly involved in "organized crime and drug smuggling," activities
not linked to the current wave of political violence.
Israel's military said the body had been returned to Israeli
authorities, but had not yet been identified.
In an unusual development, Palestinian police intervened at a protest
at the Karni crossing point in Gaza, putting protesters on trucks and
driving them away from the area. With rare exceptions, Palestinian police
have not attempted to restrain protesters from moving on Israeli army
positions.

On Friday, Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in clashes the West
Bank and Gaza, witnesses and medical sources said. Gun battles between
Palestinians and Israeli troops flared in the West Bank town of Ramallah
and the sound of machine gun fire rattled the city.
Palestinian hospital officials said 115 Palestinians were injured in
the fighting, 12 of them critically.
The clashes came after a few days of lull in almost a month of
violence that has shattered the Middle East peace process. Friday's events
led to calls from some Islamic militant groups for new suicide attacks in
Israel. "We want a big bomb," about 2,000 Hamas supporters chanted as they
marched through the West Bank town of Nablus.
"If material means were made more available to these fighters inside
occupied Palestine, then the world will see more such qualitative
martyrdom operations, which will leave big and dangerous marks on the
confrontation and decide its fate," a Hezbollah statement quoted Nasrallah
as telling its al-Manar television channel on Friday.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak has suspended peace talks in response
to the violence and has been floating the idea of a "unilateral
separation" from Palestinians if bloodshed and political impasse persist.
That would badly hurt the families of more than 100,000 Palestinians
working in Israel and could include annexation of Jewish settlements in
the Palestinian areas.
On the Arab side, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected any
"geographical or economic separation" from Israel but insisted on an
independent Palestinian state on all land Israel captured in the 1967
Middle East War, Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper reported Saturday.
"We are with a political separation that is based on the 1967 border,
international resolutions and … will lead to the setting up of a
Palestinian state," it quoted Arafat as saying.
President Clinton, who is trying to revive peace talks and has
offered to host Barak and Arafat at separate meetings in Washington, said
the outburst of violence was "heartbreaking."
"We've got to get the level of violence down before there can be a
resumption of negotiations," Clinton told reporters in Washington this
week.

Israel insists that restoring calm is a precondition for new talks.
Palestinian street activists, and some leaders, however, see sustained
confrontations as the best way to put pressure on Israel.
Though both sides appeared to drift even farther apart, top
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat recently appeared on Israel TV
Transport Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a senior negotiator on the Israeli
side.
They did exchange greetings and addressed each other by name - but
did not seem to find common language, deadlocked in the vicious circle of
rhetoric.
"As long as there's violence in the streets it is mission impossible
to sit and have a serious dialogue," Lipkin-Shahak said. "Saeb, if we want
to talk we have to talk, if we want to shoot we can shoot at each other. I
believe shooting will bring us nowhere."
"I want the Israelis not to speak to Palestinians with missiles, with
choppers, with gunships, with tanks. I want the Israelis to speak to
Palestinians as neighbors," Erekat countered. "You must end this
occupation, address the Palestinians, tell them there is hope.
Barak Pushes for Unity Government
With diplomatic efforts largely at a standstill, Barak is pushing ahead to
forge a national emergency government with the right-wing Likud Party to
cope with the worst Palestinian unrest in years.
Barak lost his parliamentary majority in July and desperately needs a
coalition deal. Parliament begins its winter session on Monday and Barak
could face efforts to topple his minority government.
Meir Sheetrit, a senior Likud politician who has been negotiating
with Barak's One Israel faction, said the sides had edged closer to a
coalition deal.
He said Barak and Likud leader Ariel Sharon may meet Saturday night
to try and smooth out remaining wrinkles.
"I hope they will meet tonight and can bridge these points," Sheetrit
told Israel Radio.
Palestinians say Sharon provoked the violence by visiting a Jerusalem
shrine holy to Muslims and Jews last month.

ABCNEWS' Sue Masterman in Vienna, The Associated Press and Reuters
contributed to this report.


Palestinians Demonstrate in D.C.
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 28 - Several thousand pro-Palestinian
demonstrators stood outside the White House today demanding an end
to the violence in Israel and more U.S. support for Palestinians.
Chanting, "No Jerusalem, no peace," and "Barak, Barak, what do
you say? How many kids have you killed today?" the peaceful crowd
had marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to Lafayette Park, across from
the White House.
Protesters urged President Clinton and Congress to put pressure
on Israel to stop the Middle East conflict. Demonstrators insisted
Israel started the latest violence.
The Palestinians and their supporters claim the United States
is biased toward Israel and not an honest broker for peace.
They said they will continue demonstrating until Palestinians
get their own state, with Jerusalem as the capital.

- Andy Field, ABCNEWS Radio

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