A Jewish settler was stabbed, and a Palestinian girl was shot and wounded Tuesday in separate incidents in the West Bank city of Hebron, said reports.
Haaretz newspaper reported that a Palestinian woman stabbed and lightly wounded a Jewish settler, adding that the Israeli army arrested the assailant, identified as Abeer Omar, 20. Following the incident, a closure was imposed on the city, said the paper.
Palestinian sources were quoted by the paper as saying that the woman has been arrested before for stabbing an Israeli policeman in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, a 17-year-old student bystander was wounded in her hand and leg when Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets at Palestinian boys who were throwing stones at a Jewish settlement in the city center, Palestinian police and witnesses told AFP.
The army said it was responding to gunfire on the settlement and reported no injuries, according to the agency.
On the diplomatic front, AFP said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell will hold talks with both Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon when he visits Israel this weekend.
Powell, on his first visit to the Middle East as Washington's top diplomat, will arrive in Israel late Saturday and hold talks with Sharon, Barak and Israeli President Moshe Katsav before leaving Sunday afternoon, said foreign ministry spokeswoman Irit Stopper.
She added that Powell will hold a news conference Sunday morning.
Powell leaves Washington on Friday on a tour of the region that will also take him to Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
A high-ranking Palestinian delegation is due to meet with Powell on Tuesday in Washington in advance of his trip.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who is also scheduled to meet Powell on Sunday, said he expected him "to push forward the peace process and to protect it after all that we have faced." – Albawaba.com
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