TEHRAN Zionists' gunfire wounded dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and violence spread into Israel on the fourth day of battles that have killed at least 16 Palestinians.
The clashes, until now restricted to Bait-ul-Moqaddas, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, spilled over into Israel proper with clashes in several occupied Arab towns, witnesses said.
Skirmishes began early in the day, resuming the violence that has undermined hopes that peace talks will soon end 52 years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Witnesses said at least 30 Palestinians were wounded by Zionist bullets in the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip near the city of Netzarim.
According to Reuters the soldiers responded stone hurling of Palestinians by firing rubber-coated metal bullets! Clashes also broke out in several occupied Arab towns including Nazareth, Kufr Kana and Umm al-Fahm, as Arabs living in Israel protested against the killing of Palestinians.
Arab lawmaker in Israel, Ahmed Tibi, said Arabs had called a general strike in protest against "the massacres of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza." The clashes flared on Thursday after a right-wing Zionist opposition leader hated by Palestinians for his links to a 1983 massacre of Palestinian refugees visited a Biat-ul-Moqaddas holy site sacred to both sides.
More than 700 Palestinians and a number of Zionists have been injured in fighting each other with guns, sticks and rocks since the violence erupted on Thursday.
Meanwhile, different individuals and organizations on Sunday voiced their hatred toward the atrocities of the Zionist regime, condemning the massacre in the Palestinian towns and cities.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Sunday blasted the Zionist regime for Palestinian-Israeli clashes which it said would plunge the region into more bloodshed.
The organization, based in the Saudi city of Jedda, blamed provocations by Israeli forces opposed to peace for the explosion of violence in Bait-ul-Moqaddas, Gaza and the West Bank that has killed 16 Palestinians in four days.
The OIC said in a statement that Sharon's visit was "an act of provocation for all Muslims and believers across the world" and condemned "criminal aggression" by Zionist forces.
According to Reuters the organization further called on the international community "to undertake immediate action to put an end to such acts" and urged all its member states to "extend all possible forms of assistance" to the Palestinian people.
Also, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned that "extremist elements" threatened to undermine the Middle East peace process during phone calls to the Zionist premier and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Saturday.
A statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday said Ivanov had phoned Israel's Shlomo Ben-Ami and Arafat to discuss the situation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Bait-ul-Moqaddas, where Palestinians and Israeli forces continued their clashes for the fourth day.
"The Russian minister decisively condemned the provocative actions of isolated extremist elements, which led to a flare-up among the population and could have a negative effect on the complicated stage of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations," the statement said.
Ivanov asked both sides to take measures to normalize the situation, it said.
In the meantime AFP quoted Palestinian Information Minster, Yasser Abed Rabbo, on Sunday that the U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is due in the Middle East in the next "few hours" amid bloody clashes between Palestinians and Zionists.
The visit could not immediately be confirmed by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
Abed Rabbo told journalists that Albright "will arrive in the region in the next few hours and will meet with the Palestinians to try to emerge from this situation." However U.S. Embassy Spokesman in Tel Aviv Larry Schwartz said he had "no knowledge" of Albright's visit.
Rabbo was speaking on arrival for a meeting of ambassadors to the Arab League to discuss the clashes which have killed 26 Palestinians and wounded more than 700 since Friday.
Also, the sheikh of Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said force was the only response appropriate for the Zionist attacks on Palestinians in Bait-ul-Moqaddas, in a statement to the Egyptian press Sunday.
"The events at Al-Aqsa Mosque support the principle stipulating that only force deters force," Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi told the secular and liberal opposition newspaper Al Wafd.
Also Iranian Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi on Sunday strongly condemned the massacre and asked why the international community has remained silent.
"Once more, the criminal Zionists, a shame to traditional Jews, aimed their machine guns at praying Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque and covered its doors, walls and carpets with their blood," he told Iran's parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Mohammad Sadr in a meeting Saturday with Head of Political Office of the Palestine Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) expressed Iran's and the Islamic world's concern over the suspicious plans designed for the Palestine.
Iran is calling for liberation of all the Palestinian lands from the Zionists' occupation, Sadr said, adding that Iran has invariably pursued this policy.
The Islamic Propagation Organization (IPO) in a statement condemned the barbaric attacks of the Zionists. The Islamic Culture and Communications Organization (ICCO) also released a statement saying that the least expectation of the Palestinian Muslims is to see the international bodies, which claim to be upholders of human rights, condemn the savage acts of the Zionist forces.