Abbas began talks Saturday to form a new government

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, March 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least one Palestinian resistance fighter opened fired on the northern Israeli kibbutz of Katzir, although there were no immediate reports that anyone was wounded, Israeli public radio said Sunday, March 23.

Israeli occupation troops have launched a manhunt to track down the shooter, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Katzir is located some two kilometers (about a mile) from the Israeli Arab village of Umm Al-Faham, near the border with the West Bank. It is home to some 400 Israelis.

The shooting took place hours after Israeli troops Saturday, March 22 bulldozed a factory and used their tanks to fire on houses in Gaza City after allegedly finding a bomb and anti-tank missiles close to a Jewish settlement near the town, Palestinian security sources said.

In Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers pushed one kilometer into Palestinian territory and destroyed a security post, the same sources said, reported AFP.

The operations came after the army said it had discovered an explosive device weighing some 100 kilograms (50 pounds) on a road leading to the Jewish settlement of Netzarim just south of Gaza City.

A spokesman said the bomb, which was destroyed in a controlled explosion, was linked to a detonator in a nearby house.

He said the army had demolished the house and adjacent buildings, which he said were used by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Four anti-tank missiles were also found in the same area, the army said.

The army says such explosive devices are aimed at destroying military or settler vehicles driving along the road which runs between the Karni border crossing and Netzarim.

The army spokesman also said Saturday that an Israeli military position guarding the Jewish settlement of Neve Dkalim in the south of the Gaza Strip had come under fire and that troops there had returned fire.

Sit-In Outside Sharon’s Residence

In another development, about 100 pacifists held a sit-in outside Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence Saturday night as a tribute to American activist Rachel Corrie, crushed to death last Sunday by an Israeli bulldozer.

The demonstrators brandished aloft banners protesting the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with slogans declaring: "The occupation is killing us all".

They also protested against the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli bulldozers, which they branded as "criminal", witnesses reported.

Corrie, 23, from Washington state, was killed in Rafah, close to the Israeli-controlled border in the Gaza Strip, last Sunday trying to prevent army bulldozers from destroying Palestinian houses, hundreds of which have been razed since the start of the intifada in September 2000.

Washington has demanded the army probe the death of Corrie, who was standing in front of a bulldozer which ran over her and crushed her.

Peace activists have accused the army of deliberately killing her, while the army claims it was an accident and has taken no action against the bulldozer driver.

Talks To Form Cabinet

Meanwhile, also Saturday, March 22, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas began talks Saturday to form a new government, kicking off negotiations with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, officials said.

The PLO veteran, who co-founded Fatah with Arafat in the late 1950s, met with the Fatah parliamentary faction, Fatah deputy Mohammed Hourani said.

He said Fatah had told Abbas that they wanted no members of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee in the cabinet to ensure a separation of powers.

Such a move, if agreed to, would mean Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo would be out of the new cabinet.

Hourani also said Fatah had insisted that no one who had been named in corruption reports should be appointed as a minister.

One of the main impulses behind reforming the Palestinian Authority was to weed out widespread graft.

Abbas's appointment last week was hailed by the international community as a significant step forward in overhauling the Palestinian Authority and democratizing the administration.

Hourani said he believed Abbas would succeed in forming a new government within the three weeks stipulated under a law passed last week, and would not need the two-week extension he is entitled to if necessary.