An Israeli soldier throws a concussion grenade at a crowd of Palestinians waiting to cross the Kalandia checkpoint

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’ expected meeting with his Israeli counterpart raised hopes for clinching a peaceful settlement, the situation on the ground did not witness a similar apparent improvement with continued Israeli incursions Tuesday, June 3.

Israeli occupation forces pushed into the West Bank town of Ramallah and imposed a curfew there, one day before the Sharon-Abbas talks in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, due to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Israeli forces closed all checkpoints in Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem, and prevented Palestinians from leaving for their work, said al-Jazeera satellite channel.

They declared Ramallah a closed military zone, saying it was on high alert for attacks during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the region.

Jeering Palestinians reacted with throwing stones and explosive cocktail at the invading forces that opened random fire in response, said the report.

Inhabitants interviewed snubbed the outcome of the Aqaba meeting , and another U.S.-Mideast summit in Egypt, in light of these aggressions that act against any good intentions by Israel in the words of one inhabitant.

A senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member, Taysir Khaled, was freed from an Israeli prison near Ramallah late Monday. Israel agreed to release Khaled during talks last Thursday between Sharon and Abbas.

Khaled said he would keep insistence on pressing for the release of thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli charges without charges. 

A Palestinian who was critically wounded during an Israeli incursion into the central Gaza Strip two months ago died of his wounds.

The 57-year-old civilian was shot in the head during a raid which left two other Palestinians dead, and died Tuesday in a Gaza City hospital.

Policeman Killed 

In the meanwhile, a Palestinian police officer was shot dead late Monday when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian security outpost in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Nasser Abdel Qadr Bakr, a 47-year-old officer with the Palestinian national security forces, died after being hit in the head by a bullet as he sat inside the post which lies between the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, they said.

His death brought to 3,276 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, including 2,474 Palestinians and 742 Israelis.

Earlier, three teenagers were moderately injured by Israeli gunfire in Beit Hanoun after Israeli army opened fire on stone throwers, Palestinian sources said.

At the same time, Israeli bulldozers operating in the town razed a Palestinian security outpost and an outpost belonging to Force 17, the elite guard of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israeli troops moved into Beit Hanoun and parts of neighboring towns over two weeks ago in an alleged bid to weaken resistance groups and prevent rocket attacks on army positions and Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip as well as Israeli towns across the border.

Further Attacks On West Bank

Palestinians say “no improvement whatsoever”

In the meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces dynamited the house of a jailed Palestinian resistance fighter in the West Bank Tuesday, while seven young stone-throwers were wounded in clashes with the army in the city of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli soldiers raided Nablus' refugee camp of Balata Tuesday morning, sparking clashes with stone-throwing youths, seven of whom were shot and wounded, the sources said.

The army slapped a curfew on the camp and searched houses in a manhunt for Palestinian fighters, the sources said.

The army said that house demolitions were "a message to terrorists and their accomplices that there their is a price to pay for their acts."

The Israeli army has demolished around 200 houses belonging to militants and their relatives since last summer as part of a policy aimed at deterring future attackers but condemned by rights groups as collective punishment.

Some voices in Israel have questioned the deterrent value of the policy, arguing Palestinian activists have no shortage of new recruits for bombings.

According to rights watchdog Amnesty International, the Israeli army has demolished some 2,000 Palestinian homes "for security reasons" since the start of the Palestinian revolt, or Intifada, in September 2000.

Also in the West Bank, seven Palestinians were captured in the southern Hebron region, military sources said.

Two of them, including a member of the Islamic Jihad, were wanted over their alleged involvement in anti-Israeli attacks, while the other five were rounded up for questioning, the sources said.