Israeli tanks confronted Palestinian demonstrators on the Gaza Strip yesterday in a fresh escalation of the month-long conflict. Five more Palestinians died in Gaza and on the West Bank, and on the political front further negotiations for the formation of an emergency coalition government in Israel proved unsuccessful.
The tanks cleared a road leading to the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza, which had been blocked by Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs. Israeli soldiers in armoured personnel carriers shot at the demonstrators, killing one Palestinian and hurting at least 11, witnesses said. Hospital sources said Samir al-Ewa was shot through the chest and died during surgery.
Near Nablus on the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians aged 23 and 34 in stone-throwing protests, hospital officials said. A fourth man died yesterday of wounds sustained last Friday. The fifth man to die was a 20year-old Palestinian shot in the head in clashes with Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Jenin, bringing the death toll in a month of disturbances to at least 141, all but eight of them Arabs. Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said at least 57 Palestinians were wounded in yesterday's unrest.
Israeli tanks were withdrawn from the Jewish settlement at Gilo, near Jerusalem: they had been brought in to retaliate against sniper fire from the neighbouring Palestinian village of Beit Jala.
In an uncompromising statement, the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said his people would "remain steadfast until a boy or a girl holds the flag of Palestine over Jerusalem, the capital of our Palestinian state".
In a speech read for him by a senior aide at the inauguration of a new hospital in Gaza City, Mr Arafat said: "The blessed Intifada of our people will continue.
"Our people have proved that they are able to continue the confrontation for years."
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, failed yet again to forge an emergency coalition with the right-wing leader of the Likud Party, Gen Ariel Sharon, in talks at Mr Barak's home. The Israeli Knesset resumes today after its summer recess, with Mr Barak at the head of a minority government. But there were suggestions that some of the smaller parties would keep him in power for the time being.
Israel's acting Foreign Minister, Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami, leaves for Paris, London and Washington today to discuss prospects for ending violence and resuming peace talks. He is due to meet the French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, and the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright.
Israeli officials said gunmen in Lebanon fired on an Israeli border patrol for the second time in four days yesterday, but Hizbullah and Palestinian groups in Lebanon denied knowledge of any attack.