Hundreds pray Israel won't build

HUNDREDS of Palestinians yesterday converged on the rocky hillsides at Har Homah, on the south-east edge of Jerusalem, and knelt in prayer that Israel would reverse its decision to build 6,500 homes here.

In the view of the Israeli government, Har Homah, given formal approval earlier this week, will constitute a new Jewish neighbourhood on the outskirts of sovereign Jerusalem. To the Palestinians, however, it will be another illegal settlement, built on occupied Arab land.

The Palestinian leadership and local residents, some of whom have had land expropriated by Israel to facilitate the Har Homah project, have vowed to congregate here every day until the development is scrapped.

While yesterday's prayers - held under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers lying down in sniper position around the site - passed without violence, the sense of anger was palpable. "The whole area is going to go up in flames," Sheikh Khalil Amireh, who led the prayer session, said.

The Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat, is reported to have told his officials to do their best to ensure the protests do not get out of hand.

However, the bombers of Hamas - the Islamic radicals who have always opposed Israeli-palestinian reconciliation, but who have carried out no major attacks for a full year - have issued furious statements in the wake of the Har Homah decision, branding Jewish setters as "legitimate targets" for attack.

Few Palestinians have been mollified by the Israeli pledge to build 3,000 Arab homes elsewhere in the city. For one thing, such pledges have led nowhere in the past; for another, the Palestinians do not want Israeli-approved homes in Israeli Jerusalem, but rather Palestinian control of the territory itself.

Ironically, with the Arab world and much of the international community united in their condemnation of the Har Homah project, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, remains more preoccupied with an internal crisis - the snowballing scandal surrounding the January appointment of the Jerusalem lawyer, Mr Ronnie Bar-On, as government attorney-general.

Leaked interim findings from the police investigation suggest that the Israeli Justice Minister, Mr Tsachi Hanegbi; a Knesset member, Mr Aryeh Deri; and the prime minister's top aide, Mr Avigdor Lieberman, may all be indicted for alleged illegalities relating to the appointment.

This trio, along with Mr Netanyahu, are likely to be called in for further police questioning in the coming week. Mr Netanyahu has already hired a top lawyer to advise him. Mr Hanegbi yesterday followed suit.

. An Israeli soldier was killed, and another badly hurt, in a Hizbullah attack on an Israeli position in south Lebanon yesterday.

The attack, which prompted heavy Israeli bombardment of suspected Hizbullah hideouts, followed the killing of a Hizbullah gunman in a clash with Israeli soldiers about 35 miles south-east of Beirut, on Thursday.