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Mr Peres: Our purpose
to achieve a ceasefire |
Four Palestinian teenagers were injured, one of them seriously, by Israeli gunfire east of Gaza City, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The violence comes hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres defended Israel's attacks against Palestinian targets earlier today, saying no nation had suffered the kind of guerrilla onslaught that has hit the Jewish state.
Israeli tanks shelled and seriously damaged a Palestinian electric cable factory in the same area, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli military sources confirmed the shooting, but did not comment on the shelling.
At a news conference, Mr Peres also said he continued to oppose the idea of international observers because they would only see one side of the situation.
However he said Israel was "serious in our attempts to implement the Mitchell Report from A to Z."
Yesterday Mr Peres said he would meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat next week. He said the exact date of next week's meeting - the first of three - would be known after a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers on Sunday and Monday in Cairo.
The foreign minister, who is attending the three-day Ambrosetti Forum on world politics and economy, reserved his toughest comments for questions that suggested Israel has been too harsh in its reaction to Palestinian attacks.
"Terrorists are a clandestine organisation. You don't see them on television. They don’t exist. What you see is our reaction, so people say we over-react," he said.
After the new conference four Palestinians teenagers were injured by Israeli gunfire as soldiers retaliated when they threw stones at them near the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the sources said.
AFP and