Middle East Rioting, gunfire in Gaza,

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

Middle East Rioting, gunfire in Gaza, West Bank leave 12 dead Continued from Al Palestinians burned effigies of Sharon in a Lebanese refugee camp, and 5,000 Egyptian stu- dents rallied at their campuses to protest the shootings. A thousand protesters carrying Palestinian flags marched through Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp, shouting: "We live for Palestine!

We die for Palestine!" About 40 Palestinian guerrillas armed with AK-47 assault rifles trampled the Israeli flag. In Lebanon's 13 refugee camps, where most of the nation's 400,000 Palestinian refugees live, residents observed a general strike and day of mourning for the victims. Shops and schools were closed.

Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said the 22 ambassadors to the league would meet in emergency session in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss violence in the Palestinian areas. "We strongly condemn the Li- kud leader, Ariel Sharon, whose provocative actions led to this bloodshed," Abdel-Meguid told The Associated Press.

In Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss called on world nations to "work for an im- mediate halt to the Israeli aggres- sion against Arab Jerusalem." In Amman, the Jordanian Council of Unions called Sharon a criminal. Efforts are under way to "hold a popular trial for the terrorist Sharon," council spokesman Sa- leh Armouti said.

But Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Khatib has said the "practical response to such pro- vocative acts" as Sharon's visit would be to secure an Israeli-Pal- estinian peace agreement that "guarantees our Palestinian brothers their rights and declares their independent state with Jeru- salem as its capital." FAYEZ NURELDINE / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Palestinian youths evacuate a wounded man Saturday during a clash with Israeli soldiers near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.

A 12-year-old boy was among those killed Saturday in On Friday, six Palestinians were killed and almost 200 wounded in clashes in the walled compound. "The battle over Jerusalem has begun," said Bassem Naim, a Pal- estinian activist, as thousands of protesters chanting the Muslim battle cry "Allahu Akbar," or God is great, marched toward an Is- raeli army position.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Pales- tinian leader Yasser Arafat by phone that Barak "will not let vio lence be a tool in the negotia- tions," Barak's office said in a statement. Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen.

Shaul Mofaz, said the Palestinian Authority did nothing to stop the violence and that Palestinian po- lice officers in some cases even participated in the clashes. Palestinian peace negotiator Nabil Shaath called the deadly confrontations at the Jerusalem shrine a "premeditated massa- cre" by Israeli security forces, aimed at proving that Israel is sovereign there.

During the unrest, Palestinian youths hurled rocks. Others stuffed gasoline-soaked rags into bottles and threw them at Israeli soldiers who fired rubber-coated steel pellets and live rounds from behind walls and jeeps. The Palestinian Authority, pro- viding a list of names and ages, said 12 Palestinians were killed and four were brain dead as a re- sult of army fire.

The Palestinian health minister, Riad Zanoun, said 523 Palestinians were in- jured. The Israeli army said 11 soldiers were injured. In two spots - an army outpost outside the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza and south of the West Bank town of Nablus - sev- eral Palestinians, some masked, exchanged fire with Israeli sol- diers.

"The Israelis must understand that Palestinians can also shoot and kill," said a gunman armed with an M-16 assault rifle. He would not give his name. In Netzarim, the 12-year-old boy who was killed was identified as Mohammed Aldura. He was caught in the cross-fire with his father, Jamal.

At one point, before the child was fatally hit, the fa- ther raised his head above the metal barrel that served as their cover and shook his finger, as if to admonish those firing at him. Besides the boy, two other Pal- estinians died in that clash, in- cluding an ambulance driver who tried to rescue the child and a Palestinian policeman.

Israeli troops fired anti-tank missiles during the firefight, the army said. The deadliest confrontation erupted in Nablus, where six Pal- estinians, including two police- men and a 16-year-old boy, were killed in a protracted firefight. Sharon denies that his visit trig- gered the violence, and he blamed the unrest on the Pales- tinian Authority.

Cite this item

"Middle East Rioting, gunfire in Gaza,," St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1 October 2000. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2000-031. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2000-031

This clipping is read closely in the section below

They could not agree on his name