Two Palestinians Shot Dead by Israeli Troops
Atef Ahmed al-Nabulsi, a 35-year-old taxi driver, was shot and killed when he was caught up in an early morning gunfight near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli Army said.
A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was also shot in the stomach in the firefight, which took place between the Israeli military base of Ofer and the Arab village of Rafat, southwest of Ramallah.
Another man was also injured while passing by in a car, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Also Monday, 20-year-old Zyad abu Sway was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while he was walking along a road not far from the Arab village of Al-Khader near Bethlehem, medical officials said.
Another Palestinian was also seriously injured there, they added.
Clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian students subsequently broke out in Al-Khader in which troops shot five students, medical officials said.
The upsurge in unrest followed the election Tuesday of hardliner Ariel Sharon as Israeli prime minister, a former general despised by Arabs.
A branch of Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's political and militia group, Fatah, said Monday it would keep shooting at Jewish settlements until they were removed, and that it hoped to topple Sharon.
"The downfall of Sharon and his settlements is our goal -- targets of our bullets and resistance," said a statement from Fatah's branch in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
"The Fatah movements considers that a new stage to continue and escalate the Intifada has begun, and it is to direct hits at the settlers wherever they are and on bypass roads," it said.
The Palestinian ambassador to Jordan said on Monday that Palestinian Leader Arafat is expected to visit Syria soon for talks with President Bashar al-Assad ahead of the Arab summit in Amman in March.
"There is a crisis in the region resulting from the election in Israel of Sharon to the post of prime minister and it calls for the closing of Arab ranks," Ambassador Omar Khatib told AFP.
The visit will take place at an unspecified date ahead of the March 27 Arab summit, Khatib said, adding that it has been preceded by "Palestinian-Syrian contacts over the past months". He did not elaborate.
A senior official said in Damascus yesterday that Syria is leading a drive to revive the Arab economic boycott of Israel to enable Arabs retain their rights and occupied lands.
He told Reuters that Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara has called an Arab follow up ministerial committee to meet in April to discuss reinforcement of the boycott which started to loosen after the launch of Arab-Israeli peace talks in 1991.
No exact date has been set for the meeting, which analysts say has been prompted by last week's election victory of Sharon as Israeli prime minister.
Arafat met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday to launch a drive to stop Sharon from shredding his predecessor's peace proposals.
"The talks ... covered the latest political developments in the region and the coordination of Arab views in light of recent political changes, especially the election victory of Ariel Sharon," Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdaineh as saying.
The battle for the leadership of Israel's demoralized and divided Labor Party intensified Monday when Cabinet Minister Binyamin ben Eliezer threw his hat into the ring to replace outgoing Premier Ehud Barak.
Labor has been ravaged by fierce infighting since Barak's defeat at the hands of his right-wing rival in last Tuesday's special election for prime minister.
Sharon was to dispatch a team of envoys to the United States yesterday to explain his tough stance on the peace process with the Palestinians, as the death toll mounted in the West Bank.