Fresh violence as Middle East truce is put to test

JERUSALEM, Oct 18: Nearly 40 Palestinians were wounded in scattered fresh clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday, putting to the test a truce agreed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh a day earlier. The violence continued as the Palestinian Authority released a statement renewing its pledge to "work to calm the situation" in its troubled territories, matching one released by Israel the previous night. In the central Gaza Strip, 25 Palestinian youths were wounded in fighting with Israeli soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement, witnesses and hospital sources said. Soldiers fired on the youths from the nearby Deir el Balah refugee camp when they stoned the Army post at the entrance to the Kfar Darom settlement. One of the wounded, a 12-year-old boy, was in a serious condition at Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The other wounded were taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis. All had been hit by live rounds, doctors in both hospitals said. Clashes were also reported in Erez, the Israeli-controlledcrossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, with youths stoning troops. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, 10 people were hit by rubber-coated steel bullets or suffered from inhalation of tear gas fired by Israeli forces, witnesses said. An AFP photographer was among those hurt, hit in the hand by a rubber bullet. Three Palestinians were also injured by rubber bullets in clashes with Israeli troops in two villages near Bethlehem, witnesses said, while at Rachel’s Tomb at the entrance to the city, Palestinians hurled stones at the Army post guarding the site. Another Palestinian was injured in an exchange of fire between Palestinian gunmen in civilian clothes and Israeli troops at the southern entrance to the city of Nablus, witnesses said. Around 4,000 people had marched through the streets of Nablus for the funeral of Mohamed al-Dakheel, 27, shot when youths clashed with Israeli soldiers guarding the Jewish holy site of Joseph’s Tomb and a nearby Jewish settlement on October 2. He died of his wounds onSaturday. The marchers condemned the Sharm el-Sheikh accord, as did 2,000 people in Jenine further North, where a rally against the Sharm truce turned violent and demonstrators hurled stones at an Army post near the city. The statement from Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority followed one released Tuesday evening by Israeli Prime Minister Ehdu Barak’s office in which he ordered his security forces "to work to end the violence". "The Palestinian Authority confirms … its commitment to apply the final declaration of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which calls for an abstention from anything which can lead to tension and violence and to work to calm the situation," the statement said. The bloodletting came after Palestinian militant groups denounced the Sharm el-Sheikh accord, and Israel began a slow easing of its tight clamp on the Palestinian territories, preparing to reopen the Gaza airport and allowing limited passage into Egypt. Israeli military sources also announced the capture of eight Palestinianssuspected of involvement in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Ramallah last week. bur-br/dab/mb