Palestinian security officials said Monday there will be no meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs on the day, contradicting Israeli reports that such a meeting was due later in the day at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) entrance in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, violent clashes flared in many West Bank cities between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
"There will be no Palestinian-Israeli security meeting today," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Israel Radio had reported that a new meeting, following abortive talks Wednesday marred by a shooting incident, could be held Monday aimed at halting the deadly cycle of violence in the region.
Abdel Razeq al-Majeida, general security chief in the Gaza Strip, also denied that a meeting would take place.
“There are no preparations to hold an Israeli-Palestinian security meeting today, especially after the assassination attempt on the security delegation," told Voice of Palestine radio, cited by AFP.
He was referring to the last meeting of top Israeli and Palestinian security officials in Israel on Wednesday night, after which Israeli troops fired at the convoy of top Palestinian security officials as it returned to Gaza.
"Israel must present an official apology," al-Majeida said.
Israel has expressed regret for Wednesday's incident at theBeit Hanoun (Erez) crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip following criticism from the United States, while insisting that Palestinians fired first.
Meanwhile, violent clashes spread around the West Bank on Monday after a Palestinian man was killed overnight by Israeli gunfire near the village of Beitunia, said reports.
Palestinian witnesses told AFP that four Israeli soldiers were wounded in an exchange of fire as they tried to enter Beitunia, which lies between Ramallah and Jerusalem.
However, the Israeli army denied it suffered any casualties.
"There is no basis to Palestinian claims that a soldier was either killed or wounded in Beitunia," an army spokesman told The Jerusalem Post.
The army said a military jeep had been shot at in the area and that the army had returned fire, said the Post.
On Sunday, Taysir al-Amuri, 45, was shot dead by Israeli machine-gun bullets after being caught up in another gunfight in the Beitunia area.
Israeli tanks and troops closed in on Beitunia on Monday and two Palestinian schools in the village were evacuated during a three-hour gunfight between armed Palestinians and Israeli troops, said the Post.
In Nablus, Palestinians reportedly shot at soldiers guarding the Jewish settlement of Samaria, but it said that there were no injuries.
Meanwhile in the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing Palestinian youths, said the Post, adding that there were no injuries.
On Sunday night, three surface-to-surface rockets hit a Palestinian police station and a headquarters of Fateh movement in northern Gaza Strip overnight, said reports, adding that at least five Palestinians were injured in the attack, including a ten-year-old boy.
The Israeli strike was in retaliation for a Palestinian mortar shell attack at Kibuutz Nahal Oz, within Israel just outside the Gaza Strip. No Israelis were injured, said Haaretz.
The fighting in the Gaza Strip has been intensifying with almost nightly exchanges of rocket and mortar fire.
A Palestinian police official accused Israel of "now conducting night bombardment of residential areas and security posts and police stations which puts the population in danger."
Palestinians also allegedly fired on an army position next to the Jewish settlement of Nokdim near Bethlehem, said AFP, adding that Israeli troops returned fire.
Palestinian sources said six Palestinians, including a one-and-a-half-year-old baby girl, were injured in clashes next to the village of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem.
The infant, Amani Ghuneim, was found near her home close to the site of the incident with a wound from a rubber bullet. Medical sources told AFP that her condition was stable.
In other incident, the Israeli army said a bomb was dismantled in the divided West Bank town of Hebron, according to reports.
In Gaza City, close to 1,000 Palestinians marched to the local UN office, vowing to continue their half-year uprising against occupation and demanding international protection against Israel's crackdown.
Yet there was some sign of a slight easing of the crackdown, with a military spokesman announcing that a thousand Palestinians are allowed to return to work in Israel on Monday, despite the blockade, said Haaretz newspaper.
"It is a first contingent aimed at easing the sanctions imposed on the Palestinian population," Yarden Vatikai, spokesman for the coordination of Israeli activity in the Palestinian territories, said.
Israel has decided to allow a first batch of 3,200 Palestinians to return to work in its territory, but the Palestinian authority has so far only passed on a thousand names to the military administration.
"As soon as we get a full list we will issue the necessary permits," the spokesman said.
On the diplomatic front, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was in Egypt Sunday, meeting President Hosni Mubarak.
Later, he met Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid. After that meeting, the two called for a UN meeting to ensure the Palestinians protection from Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, whom the league branded a "war criminal."
Meguid said after the talks with Arafat that "contacts will start with the UN" for an "urgent meeting of the Security Council to take a decision which would guarantee the international protection of the Palestinian people."
Arafat also talked by phone Sunday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, reported Haaretz newspaper, citing the Palestinian WAFA news agency.
"President Arafat and the American secretary of state spoke mainly about the military escalation and Israeli aggressions against Palestinian civilians and efforts undertaken by the international community to save the peace process," said Arafat advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina, according to the agency.
The Palestinian leadership asked the United States last Monday to again take up its role as a leader and mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to abandon its current policy of "unconditional support" for Sharon.
Within the same context, Jordanian acting parliament speaker, MP Khalil Attiyeh, on Sunday urged the international community to intervene immediately and stop the escalation of violence in the Palestinian territories, said Jordan's official Petra news agency.
"The world cannot remain a silent spectator of the war of extermination being waged against the Palestinian people ... because this silence is considered a participation in the crime," Attiyeh said in a statement.
The deputy -- filling in for Parliament Speaker Abdel Hadi Majali who is currently on a visit to Cuba -- blamed Sharon for the escalating violence in the Palestinian territories since Sharon took office on March 7.
"The deterioration in the occupied territories at the hands of Ariel Sharon has reached a dangerous point that demands urgent Arab, Islamic and international intervention," he said according to Petra news agency.
"Sharon's brutal aggression is pushing the region to the threshold of an all-out explosion," he warned.
In Egypt, around 3,000 students demonstrated against Israel at Cairo university Sunday, under police surveillance and without incident, police sources told AFP.
The students marched on the campus, where demonstrations are allowed, chanting slogans against Israel and its prime minister Ariel Sharon, police sources said.
Anti-riot police armed with water canons stopped the demonstrators from leaving the university campus, witnesses said.
Several thousand students demonstrated last week at both Cairo university and the university of Ain Shams, which is also in Cairo, protesting against Israel and the United States.
The students had accused the United States of supporting Israeli army action against the Palestinians - Albawaba.com
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