TEHRAN In a stark contradiction to the apparently only verbal cease-fire announced by Zionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week, the Israeli Army continues to make almost daily incursions into PA-controlled areas, especially in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian Security Chief in Gaza Abdul Razzak al-Majayada, the Israeli Army violated the alleged cease-fire 97 times in the span of four days, or an average of one violation per hour, leaving at least four Palestinians dead and injuring as many as a hundred others.

On May 25, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles advanced half a kilometer into PA territory in four areas in Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, south of Gaza City, at the Mintar crossing and at Ouja near Jericho in the West Bank.

According to IRNA, in each of these incursion, Israeli tanks barraged Palestinian residential areas with artillery and machine-gun fire, while army bulldozers were busy destroying and pulverizing large tracts of Palestinian farmland and orchards.

Israeli gunmen meanwhile, shot dead a 20-year-old Palestinian and wounded three other men on Tuesday near an Israeli Army checkpoint in the West Bank city of Jericho, a senior Palestinian security official said.

Haj Ismail Jaber, commander of Palestinian national forces in the West Bank, said said Ahmad Ihleile was killed and the other men were hurt when they were shot as they waited in a car 200 meters (yards) from the checkpoint.

Earlier Israeli troops shot dead two boys, Ala Bouji and Shadi Kamal Siyam, the first near the Mintar crossing and the second during a bombardment in Rafah.

Also on May 25, Israeli tanks bombarded the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, inflicting heavy damage on residential homes, with one home completely burned down.

Artillery bombardment of residential areas was likewise reported on May 29 in and around Nablus, where the Israeli Army deployed more tanks onto hilltops overlooking the largest town in the West Bank.

In addition, Zionists continued to terrorize Palestinian villagers throughout the West Bank.

On Monday, a Jewish settler opened fire on Palestinian schoolchildren who were returning home near the village of Tku, south of Bethlehem, seriously wounding two boys.

The Jewish terrorist reportedly fled to the nearby Jewish settlement but the Israeli Army made no efforts to arrest or even question him.

Moreover, the settler terrorists also set Palestinian grain fields on fire in many localities in the West Bank just as the fields were ripe for harvest, inflicting heavy economic losses on penniless Palestinian peasants.

Apart from continued attacks and bombardment of Palestinian population centers, the Israeli Army continues to lay siege on most Palestinian towns, cutting them from each other and isolating them from the rest of the world.

In the meantime IRNA reported that Malaysia hopes that all Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries will sever their political and economic ties with Israel, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

He said this was necessary to reflect unity on action taken by the organization against Israel.

Badawi, who was also a former foreign minister said a handful of OIC members had active ties with Israel, and for some reason were not keen to implement OIC resolutions on the matter.

"Maybe they have bilateral interest in having relations with Israel," Badawi told Malaysia's daily, **** The New Straits Times **** after a meeting of the ruling United Malay National Organization (UMNO) leaders in the northern Perlis state about 600km from here.

He was asked to comment on the resolution adopted at the recent OIC foreign ministers' extraordinary meeting in Doha, Qatar, calling on OIC members to sever political and economic ties with Israel until the Zionist regime implements the United Nations' resolution on Palestine.