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Israelis Violate Truce, Kill Three Palestinians
JERUSALEM, Sept 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation troops shot dead three Palestinians in the West Bank Sunday, violating a truce that the two sides had agreed to last week, news agencies reported.
Palestinian officials said that a member of their preventative security services was riddled with bullets and shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank town of Al- Khalil (Hebron) as he was trying to prevent clashes between unarmed youths and Israeli occupation troops.
Israel troops earlier Sunday also gunned down two Palestinian men, Palestinian officials said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
With the latest Israeli violations of the Mideast truce, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat flew to Cairo, Egypt, Sunday for consultations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, then on to Jordan for a meeting with King Abdullah II.
Arafat accused Israel of launching a "deliberate escalation" against the Palestinians despite the truce plan agreed upon last week.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said that according to the agreement signed between them Wednesday, the truce was to take effect this past Friday, with various elements being implemented over the following four days.
However, the Israeli side has not fulfilled its side of the agreement and continues its aggression against the Palestinians, killing at least 18 Palestinians and injuring scores others over the past five days.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israel had yet to honor its side of the bargain and has not started lifting a military blockade of Palestinian towns, villages and roads. "Nothing has been implemented yet," he said. "We need to see some actions on the ground, not only words on paper."
The Israeli army announced it had opened the crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt despite the unrest, adding that it would ease other restrictions on the Palestinian territories in line with the agreement.
However, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat dismissed the pledges, saying that in Jericho in the West Bank, where conditions were meant to have been relaxed, the so-called Israeli security cordon had been tightened.
The latest uprising against illegal Israeli occupation has claimed the lives of more than 800 people - the vast majority being Palestinians, of whom the majority are children and teenagers - due to excessive Israeli violence condemned by the international community, including the U.S. - Israel's staunchest ally.
Another 35,000 Palestinians have been injured, 27% of whom are children under the age of 18. The youngest was a 4-month-old baby shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.
The Intifada erupted last September when Ariel Sharon, then opposition leader, and now prime minister, marched onto the al-Aqsa compound flanked by over a thousand Israeli police in riot gear, in an
inciteful show of force designed to impose further Israeli domination over illegally occupied East Jerusalem.
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