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Arafat, Peres Meet in Spain, Violence Continues in West Bank
FORMENTOR, Spain, Nov 2 (News Agencies) - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met briefly in Spain Friday for the first time in a month at a conference devoted to Middle East peace.
The two men were seen together on the terrace of a hotel on the island of Majorca where the conference is being held with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in attendance. The four leaders had lunch together.
During his opening speech Mubarak criticized Israel saying it was pursuing provocative politics and that it was resorting to violence.
"The continuation of provocative politics on the part of the Israeli government, its use of violence, blockades and closing of borders in an attempt to oppress the Palestinian people... leads to a vicious circle of indefinite violence and counter-violence," he said.
The Egyptian leader appealed to the Israelis and Palestinians to "exit as quickly and possible from this cycle of violence and to move towards political negotiations - the only means to reach security and guarantee peace and stability."
It was the first time the Peres and Arafat have met since September 26th, when at a meeting at Gaza Airport they agreed on a tentative ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to get the Middle East peace process rolling again.
The ceasefire collapsed almost immediately and the violence between the two sides has continued unabated.
Both Peres and Arafat indicated they were prepared to meet on the sidelines of the forum in Formentor, although it was unclear whether they would hold substantive talks or negotiations.
In an interview published on Friday in the Spanish newspaper Vanguardia, Peres warned that any full-scale meeting in Majorca would have to be very carefully planned so as not to create false expectations.
Peres said on Thursday he was working on a new plan to end the 13 months of violence between the two sides, which has left almost 950 people dead, although he declined to provide any details.
Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, often at loggerheads with the Peres over the peace process, has indicated he does not want his coalition government partner to hold any negotiations with the Palestinian leader.
Meanwhile, Israeli television reported that Palestinian gunmen had killed an Israeli, but did not identify the victim or provide any other details.
The latest death brought the toll of 13 months of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, to 947, including 741 Palestinians and 184 Israelis.
The shooting was the only major incident to blight one of the calmest days in more than a month in the occupied territories, where the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation has raged for well over a year.
However, a short time earlier, Israeli military sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that unidentified Palestinian assailants had wounded two soldiers, one seriously, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El near Ramallah.
The gunmen drove up in a jeep to an army barricade guarding the settlers and opened fire before fleeing into autonomous Palestinian territory, they said.
After the shooting near Ramallah, an Israeli tank and about a dozen armored vehicles made a brief incursion into the Palestinian village of Silwad, where about 20 people were arrested, Palestinian sources later told AFP.
The army pulled out a short time later from the sector, where Israel still has authority over security measures, they said.
Palestinian security forces also accused the Israeli military Friday of mounting a new incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip.
They said two tanks and two bulldozers advanced 500 meters (yards) into Beit Lahiya village and began destroying farmland.
Separately, two Israeli tanks ploughed 200 meters (yards) into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, again without provocation, the Palestinians said.
A five-year-old Palestinian was also injured Friday evening when Israeli soldiers posted near the Netzarim Jewish settlement opened fire on his nearby house.
Israeli tanks also continue to partially reoccupy five Palestinian cities they invaded after a cabinet minister was gunned down in Jerusalem on October 17.
A senior official in the United States, which has been trying to calm the region to prevent further Arab and Muslim anger amid its military operation in Afghanistan, also charged that the Palestinian uprising had become a "process of calculated terror."
"The Intifada, whatever its origin, has become an ongoing process of calculated terror and escalation, reciprocated by actions which all too often by Israel have proved inflammatory and provocative," said David Satterfield, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs.
He called on both sides to soothe inflamed Middle East tensions.
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