A booby-trapped truck exploded in the Gaza Strip on Friday, but no injuries were reported, Israeli radio stations said, cited by Reuters.
An army spokesman confirmed that a blast had occurred, but said he did not know of any injuries.
Army Radio said the vehicle exploded along a road connecting the Jewish settlement of Netzarim to Karni, a Gaza crossing to Israel.
Israel Radio carried a similar report. Both said no one was hurt and the circumstances were unclear, said the agency.
Palestinian Islamic militant groups have carried out car bombings against Israeli targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in Israel with greater frequency since the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September.
JORDAN, PALESTINE AGREE ON MITCHELL REPORT AS BASIS FOR PEACE EFFORTS
During their meeting on Thursday in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat welcomed the recommendations of the Mitchell report,said Jordan's official Petra news agency.
The agency said the leaders felt the recommendations complemented the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative, and stressed the need to find a mechanism that would ensure the implementation of all the report's proposals.
Petra said the two leaders praised the American stand regarding the Mitchell report, calling, at the same time, for a direct American role in carrying out its
recommendations.
The king reiterated the need for an immediate end to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and an end the policy of siege and blockade, while affirming that the implementation of the international resolutions was
the only way to reach a comprehensive and just peace and achieve security and stability for the peoples of the region, said the agency.
The two leaders lauded European support for the initiatives aiming at ending the conflict in the Palestinian territories and resuming the peace process.
DESPITE ISRAELI CEASEFIRE CLAIM, CLASHES CONTINUE
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians on Thursday, said reports.
Death came to one Palestinian on Thursday in the shape of a silent Israeli bullet. The 18-year-old, who was deaf, did not hear a gun battle raging around him when he was shot outside his house, witnesses said.
Hours later, Israeli soldiers shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian during an incursion into the Canada refugee camp in Gaza, according to Reuters.
They were the first Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, echoing recommendations of a US-led investigation into the on-going violence, called on Tuesday for an immediate halt to the fighting.
In the West Bank, shooting erupted along a familiar firing line between the Jewish settlement of Gilo, which Israel regards as a Jerusalem neighborhood, and the West Bank village of Beit Jala.
Hospital officials said seven Palestinians, including two children, were wounded.
ISRAELI ARMY CHIEF SPEAKS OF WAR
In tandem with the ceasefire call, Israeli soldiers were given orders not to make pre-emptive attacks on Palestinians -- guidelines which 48 hours later appeared to be testing the patience of army chief Shaul Mofaz, said Reuters.
"The Israeli government decided on a ceasefire that has yet to be honored by the Palestinians," Mofaz said in a speech.
"As long as the political echelon sticks to the decision, we will give it every chance. But for Israeli soldiers, who have been engaged in armed conflict for months, it is a real war."
Palestinians termed Sharon's ceasefire appeal a public relations ploy, aimed at drawing attention away from his rejection of a key element of the inquiry committee's report -- a total freeze on Jewish settlement construction work.
"There has been no (Palestinian) order to cease fire," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres complained on Thursday. "There have been orders constantly to step up and encourage (firing)."
The Palestinian cabinet, in a statement after its weekly meeting on Thursday, accused the "Sharon-Peres" government of "starting its usual maneuvers to destroy the report" by the commission chaired by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
The report said a ceasefire should be followed by confidence-building measures and a cooling off period leading to a resumption of peacemaking.
ISRAELI ARMY: ARAFAT WON'T AGREE TO INTERIM DEAL, LEVEL OF VIOLENCE TO RISE
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will continue for many months, maybe even years, in its current form, although the number of casualties is expected to rise and the methods used by both sides are likely to intensify, according to a strategic evaluation of the situation by the Israeli army, cited by Haaretz.
The army predicts that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat “will refuse to negotiate a long-term interim agreement with Israel and will insist on a permanent status agreement under which a Palestinian state will be established within the pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital and with the right of return for the refugees.”
According to the report, despite the fact that Arafat would rather leave this to the next generation of Palestinian leaders than give up on these beliefs, Israel must continue to see him as the one who can bring about a "steady pacification" of the conflict. The PA is far from collapse and even if its security forces are not in control of all the population, Arafat still has a high degree of control over the heads of these forces.
According to the authors' evaluation of the situation, Israel must endeavor to disassociate the Palestinian conflict from the conflict with its northern neighbors -- Syria and Lebanon -- by efficient, but selective, responses to any provocative acts by Hizbollah.
Syria does not want a war with Israel and the air force's strike against a Syrian radar station just outside of Beirut in April left a deep impression on Damascus, which saw it as just the start of what Israel can do, they claim – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
