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Palestinians Wounded, Shots Come Close To Israel Defense Minister
JERUSALEM, March 9 (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - In the worst day of Israeli-Palestinian fighting since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office, 34 Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers Friday near the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said, according to MSNBC.
Palestinians were wounded as they tried to reopen a road near Ramallah where the Israeli army had dug trenches. The trenches, which isolate villages, were part of what Israelis call security operations, but what Palestinians regard as collective punishment, MSNBC adds.
Clashes broke out by residents in Ramallah and the nearby West Bank village of Bir Zeit on a spot where the Israeli army dug up the road to enforce its closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The cutting of the road between Ramallah and Bir Zeit appeared to be part of a new strategy to carve Palestinian territories into smaller and more controllable areas, isolating the most troublesome ones.
The zones will be policed by a special military force and will permit Israel to ease sanctions on Palestinian areas that have not been hotbeds of fighting during the past five months, the top-selling Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said Friday.
Since the start of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli army has slapped a crippling blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both inside the territories and on their borders with Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel's new defense minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, came under sniper fire Friday while touring an Israeli observation point in Gaza but was not harmed, reports CNN.
The intensified fighting came just two days after Sharon - head of the Likud party - was sworn in as the new Israeli leader. Many Palestinians regard Sharon and the Likud as hawkish toward Palestinians and the peace process, CNN adds.
Israeli army radio said a Palestinian sniper fired on a military observation post in the Gaza Strip that Ben Eliezer, army chief Shaul Mofaz and other military officials, were visiting.
There were no casualties, and bodyguards immediately evacuated the officials, Israeli radio said.
Ben Eliezer was visiting troops and Israeli bases in the Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis, on his third day in office and was not wearing a protective vest or helmet, contrary to standing orders, said Israeli reporters accompanying him, reports the Washington Post.
Following the incident, the army issued a statement saying the firing had "no connection" with Ben Eliezer's visit but was directed at a nearby military base.
Taking office Thursday, Ben Eliezer said he was determined to "act with the proper means, military and otherwise, to reduce terrorism and catch the people carrying out the attacks and those behind them."
Around the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israeli troops fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets on dozens of demonstrators marching on an Israeli checkpoint on the northern edge of the Arab-run city, witnesses said.
Ten Palestinian stone-throwers were lightly injured there, medical officials said.
Three Palestinians were also injured, one critically, when Israeli troops fired on a Palestinian car which the army said failed to stop at a checkpoint near Ramallah, army radio reported.
Medical officials confirmed that one of the Palestinians in the car was shot in the chest and that his condition was critical. Two other passengers were lightly injured.
Israeli-Palestinian clashes have broken out nearly every Friday for the past five months.
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