Israel and the Palestinians agreed Wednesday to a ceasefire over the re-occupied West Bank town of Beit Jala. However, Israel shelled the city, made a brief incursion into a Ramallah refugee camp and killed a Palestinian officer in Hebron, according to reports.
AFP said that no sooner was the truce announced than shooting resumed, with bullets hitting the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Gilo, whose protection was the justification for the Israeli incursion, according to the Israeli police.
But Palestinian security officials said the exchanges of fire, to which the Israelis responded with tank shells, started when their fighters shot in the air in celebration at hearing the news of the truce.
The Israelis heard the shooting and fired back, they said.
Israeli police said that the shooting was "towards Gilo," and stressed that no damage or injuries had been caused.
It was not immediately clear if the confused fighting would bury the truce before it was even put into effect, and by 11:00pm Israel troops had not yet pulled out of Beit Jala.
Radio Israel had reported that the occupation troops would pull back by 8:00pm if the initial calm continued.
Fateh leader in the West Bank Marwan Barghouthi told Abu Dhabi satellite TV that there had been no truce: “only suggestions and ideas” that did not materialize as the Israelis were shelling Ramallah and Bethlehem.
According to AFP, there were no reports of gunfire after 9:00pm, despite a threat by Palestinian gunmen to continue firing unless the troops pulled out.
Israel forces also made a brief incursion into the Palestinian refugee camp of Al Jalazun north of the West Bank town of Ramallah late Wednesday, witnesses said.
Israel's mini-cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and military officers were to meet later to debate the situation in the West Bank hotspot.
Meanwhile, a serious gun battle broke out Wednesday night in Hebron, another volatile section of the West Bank, leaving dead a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 guard unit and 15 other Palestinians wounded.
Abud Dabassi, 32, died of his wounds at Ahli Hospital in Hebron, Palestinian sources told the agency.
An Israeli army spokesman told AFP that the fighting began after Palestinian forces shot at Israeli positions in the center of Hebron. Israeli occupation forces are stationed in the city to protect a tiny "settlement" of around 450 Israelis from the roughly 120,000 Palestinians residents.
The fragile Beit Jala ceasefire truce came after two days of skirmishes in the town, a mainly Christian area on the edge of Bethlehem, famous as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
A senior Israeli foreign ministry official said an agreement had been reached in principle after "a series of contacts between the two parties."
Meanwhile, the United States said again that Israel should withdraw from Beit Jala and Rafah refugee camp, still held by the Israeli forces since Tuesday.
Earlier Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West bank and the Gaza Strip.
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 572 Palestinians, and 154 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss.
Israel’s wounded number in the high hundreds, according to army sources, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society puts the number of Palestinians injured at over 14,000.
Amnesty International reported early this year that almost 100 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were under no immediate threat.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation began last September – Albawaba.com
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