Twenty Palestinians were injured by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank Friday, with the army cutting off the northern Gaza Strip from the south after two bombs exploded near Jewish settlements and Palestinians fired mortars.
Talal Hassan Abu Arida, 16, was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in Rafah near the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, medical officials said, cited by AFP.
No clashes were underway at the time, but Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen had engaged in a gunfight some 20 minutes earlier, they told the agency.
The Israelis blocked Arida's ambulance, preventing it from taking him to the hospital, medical officials were quoted as saying.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, 15 Palestinians who had been throwing stones at Israeli soldiers on the northern edge of the Arab-run city were injured when the soldiers responded with rubber-coated steel bullets, AFP added.
It said the Ramallah clashes broke out after some 2,000 protesters marched in the city, expressing support for the five-month-old Palestinian uprising and denouncing Israel and the United States.
Palestinian groups have called for a "day of rage" every Friday since the start of the intifada late last September.
In the West Bank village of al-Khader, near Bethlehem, violent clashes broke out when some 150 youths pelted soldiers with rocks, residents said.
Israeli troops responded with tear gas and a mixture of live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets, injuring four Palestinians, two of them seriously.
One was shot in the leg with a live round and another got a rubber-bullet in the eye, medical officials said, adding that he was undergoing an operation to try to save the eye.
According to the agency, there were also minor clashes between stone-throwers and soldiers in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, but without reports of injuries.
Two explosive devices went off within half an hour of each other Friday morning in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported earlier, quoted by Haaretz.
According to the report, the first went off near the settlement of Morag and was most likely intended against soldiers. Another exploded on the Karni-Netzarim road and also most likely targeted soldiers. No injuries were reported in either incident.
AFP cited Palestinian security sources as reporting an explosion near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and said Israeli forces responded by closing down main roads, cutting off the northern Gaza Strip from the south.
Palestinian residents also reported an explosion near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip and a gunfight south of Netzarim in the town of Deir al-Balah, saying Israelis shelled and damaged a technical training school and a house, said the agency.
Separately, mortar fire was reported overnight near the Elei Sinai and Dugit settlements.
"The Israeli army will react in the way it finds appropriate to assure civilians and Israeli soldiers' safety," the army spokesman said, blaming "this escalation in violence and terrorism" on the Palestinian Authority.
For his part, caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by AFP as saying in a statement that "the Israeli army and security services will know without restriction how to deal with those who were behind these shots."
On Thursday, two Palestinians and an Israeli were injured when sporadic violence flared in the West Bank that kicked off with a bomb and continued into the night with a gunfight.
A Palestinian husband and wife were injured when Israeli forces shot at the village of Qusra in the northern West Bank after an Israeli bus came under fire in the area, residents and hospital officials were quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon called Friday for Washington's close relations with the Jewish state to "obsess" less on the Middle East peace process.
"The prime minister-elect does not intend to abandon the peace process, but he does not think it is possible for Israel and the United States to obsess just on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and put aside a regional approach to the problems," Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP.
"Issues such as the acquisition of non-conventional weapons by countries such as Iraq are at least as important for the region's stability, as President (George W.) Bush understands well," Gissin said.
The Bush administration has made clear that Powell, making his first trip to the region as secretary of state, is not coming with a peace plan as he holds talks with Sharon and with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat – Albawaba.com
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