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Palestinian-Israeli Clashes Abate in West Bank, Gaza
The severe clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip abated Monday, the fifth day of the violence which has left about 30 dead and hundreds wounded.
At the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the center of the Gaza Strip, which witnessed the most violent clashes recently, only two to three hundreds of Palestinians gathered to protest the Israeli brutality, as compared to two to three thousands on Saturday, witnesses said.
Palestinian police began to prevent more protestors, especially teenagers, from approaching the settlement to pelt stones, witnesses added.
Some parts of Gaza witnessed small-scale demonstration but no severe clashes occurred.
Reports from the West Bank said that in the towns of Hebron and Ramallah, the number of the Palestinian demonstrators have decreased to dozens.
Twenty-seven Palestinians, one Israeli border policeman, one Israeli Arab and one Israeli Jew have been killed in the five days of violence, which spread to the Jewish state itself on Sunday for the first time in the latest spasm of conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to quell the violence and vowed to use any means, including tanks, to halt the bloodshed.
"The soldiers and our officers were instructed to use any method to protect the citizens of Israel," he told Israel Radio.
Palestinian leaders say they are not to blame for the clashes and accuse Israel of using excessive force. They say Israeli forces have not kept promises to withdraw from some of the flashpoints.
Palestinian officials said Palestinian police were trying to keep protesters away from potential flashpoints.
"There are orders to our policemen to restore calm," one said.
U.S. President Bill Clinton appealed for an end to the bloodshed in separate telephone calls with Arafat and Barak at the weekend.
The White House said on Sunday that the sides had agreed to support a U.S.-led, three-party inquiry into the fighting.
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