Israeli soldiers shot dead an eight-year-old Palestinian girl yesterday during an exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The sources said the girl died in hospital after being shot in the head during the gunfight. The Israeli army said Palestinian gunmen had opened fire on Israeli forces in a Jewish neighbourhood and that two Israeli border police had been wounded in the exchange.
Earlier yesterday, as yet another Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and injured 20 Israelis in an attack in northern Israel, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator formally endorsed a return to "armed resistance" against Israel.
The latest bombing, which came three days after a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack in a Jerusalem pizza restaurant, took place in a cafe in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Motzkin late yesterday afternoon. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack, naming the bomber as Muhammad Nasser (28). Abdullah Shami, the leader of Islamic Jihad vowed to carry out more such bombings "until the enemy is forced out of all Palestinian land".
In the wake of Thursday's attack Israel took over control of the PLO's Jerusalem headquarters, the Orient House in the east of the city. Over the weekend, it also took control of other Palestinian Authority installations, including a telecommunications facility.
The takeover of the Orient House has generated protests across the Arab world. Significantly, too, there has been criticism from the Bush administration. At a press conference yesterday in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Dis, Abu Ala, the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the key Palestinian architect of the collapsed Oslo peace accords, condemned Israel.
He said Israel had now launched "the battle for Jerusalem".
The decision by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to force the closure of the Orient House has divided the Israeli government.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, protested to Mr Sharon yesterday that attempting to "fight fire with fire" would lead nowhere, and apparently secured permission to hold talks with Palestinian leaders - but not with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat - on a renewed ceasefire effort.