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Death Toll Goes Past 200 After New "Day Of Rage" Against Israel
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The death toll from six weeks of violence topped 200 on Friday after five more Palestinians and an Israeli were killed amid fruitless efforts to break the cycle of violence.
Tens of thousands of mourners packed the streets of Bethlehem for the funeral of a Palestinian leader assassinated Thursday by an Israeli helicopter gunship, as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak focused on diplomacy.
The new killings brought the death toll to 202 in six weeks of violence that erupted after the September 28th visit of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, a site holy to Muslims as well as Jews whose sovereignty is hotly disputed.
Three Palestinians, ranging in age from 15 to 42, died in the West Bank after being shot with live rounds during clashes with Israeli troops, hospital sources said.
Two other Palestinians died after being shot at the Karni and Erez crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Some 30,000 people took to the streets throughout the Palestinian territories on Friday, a declared "day of rage," as they buried four Palestinians killed the day before.
But only minor scuffles were reported in Jerusalem, where Israeli soldiers were out in force and barred men under 45 from entering the al-Aqsa mosque.
One Israeli died Friday, when a gun battle erupted between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers guarding the Jewish shrine of Rachel's Tomb near the Palestinian-run city of Bethlehem.
The soldier was shot in the neck and taken to the Haddasah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem where he died, an Israeli military source said.
The fighting there came after thousands of mourners crowded the streets to attend a funeral for Hussein Sayef Abeyad, a military leader in Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
The Israeli army said it killed Abeyad with a missile Thursday because he was on his way to kill Israeli soldiers. Two women bystanders were also killed in the attack.
The killing not only enraged protesters, but also prompted one Palestinian official to suggest that agreements with Israel may no longer be binding.
"The Palestinians can no longer talk of agreements or of a political process after Barak turned his back on accords that have been reached," said Hassan Asfour, a member of the Palestinian cabinet.
"I think it is no longer possible to have as a partner a negotiator that is at the same time a killer," he said.
Asfour was in Qatar to attend an upcoming summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), whose foreign ministers finished two days of talks Friday with a proposal for tough action against Israel.
The ministers' draft proposal, to be brought before the summit Sunday, calls on all of the Islamic countries that have relations or are normalizing relations with Israel to break them off.
The document also threatens to break off relations with any country that transfers its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem or recognizes the holy city as Israel's capital.
The proposal specifically denounces the United States, where leaders, including outgoing President Bill Clinton, have voiced their desire to eventually move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which Israel controls but the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.
Clinton is set to meet Sunday with Barak, who said he was not optimistic about re-launching peace talks.
"We hope that the escalation won't happen and that the Palestinian leadership will reduce violence. It is clear that we have to find a solution through negotiations, but the situation is fragile and can deteriorate," Barak said at a military base near Ramallah, according to his spokesman David Ziso.
Arafat, who met with Clinton the day before, spent Friday pleading for the United Nations to send in 2,000 armed military observers to protect the Palestinians from Israel.
But Israel strongly opposes the proposal and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke said Washington would object to any plan "unilaterally proposed without ever having been discussed by the other side, directly."
After private talks with the U.N. Security Council's 15 member states, Arafat hinted he might support an alternative idea floated by France for an unarmed observer force.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) meanwhile stepped back from a planned move towards declaring a separate Palestinian state next week, which Israel had warned would have serious consequences.
The PLO's Central Council would not meet on or before November 15th as it had intended, its chairman Salim al-Zanun told Voice of Palestine radio.
The Central Council decided on September 10th to delay unilaterally declaring statehood, but vowed to meet by November 15th to review the issue.
Al-Zanun said the meeting was not possible by November 15th because of the Islamic summit in Qatar due to be held from November 12th to November 14th.
"We agreed that the date of the Central Council meeting will be declared as soon as possible," Al-Zanun said.
He was also cited in the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds as saying the Council would meet "before the end of the year."
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