Death Toll in Israeli-Palestinian Violence Rises to 66Israeli helicopters sprayed bullets onto Palestinian homes in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, witnesses said, as the death toll in a week of Israeli-Palestinian violence rose to 66.Almost all the dead in the fighting that has swept the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab Israeli towns are Arabs. In Paris, an Israeli official said Israeli, Palestinian and US leaders had agreed on steps to curb the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reached an initial agreement for Israeli troops to withdraw to positions held before the violence started. Palestinians in return would stay away from two flashpoints on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There would also be an urgent security review. In the West Bank, witnesses said a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed as Palestinians exchanged fire with Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers in the heart of Hebron. Israeli armoured troop carriers rumbled into the edge of the divided town. An Israeli army spokeswoman said no helicopters had been in the area. A 22-year-old Palestinian policemen was killed during confrontations in the West Bank town of Tulkarm and a second policeman died in street battles in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian hospital sources said. They said a 17-year-old Palestinian youth from the Ramallah area died of a gunshot wound to his head, as did a 22-year-old man from the West Bank town of Jenin, his family reported. NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY KILLED Earlier in the day, a nine-year old Palestinian boy was killed in clashes with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. Mohammed Abu Assi was the youngest to die in the wave of violence that has left the Middle East peace process in tatters. He was shot in the chest during a battle that raged as Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a building in which Palestinian gunmen had taken up positions, witnesses said. Anti-Israeli demonstrations flared again in Egypt. Hundreds of Egyptian demonstrators marched on the Israeli embassy in Cairo and burned Israeli flags outside. In Denmark, Palestinians immigrants threw stones and clashed with police in Copenhagen after an initially peaceful anti-Israeli demonstration turned violent. Thousands of Syrians stoned the U.S. embassy in Damascus over the violence before riot police and security forces broke up the demonstration. The street battles in the Israeli Arab areas, West Bank and Gaza Strip erupted last Thursday after Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon visited a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews, an act which Arabs said defiled the site. Gun battles also erupted on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, although no injuries were reported. Two hand grenades were thrown at an Israeli post in Rafah on the border with Egypt, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. More violence flared in Jaffa, home to thousands of Arabs on the edge of Tel Aviv, when Arab demonstrators attacked television crews and beat an Italian journalist who was taken to hospital. In the West Bank town of Nablus, a large crowd of Palestinians gathered at the funeral of a man killed on Tuesday and then headed to Joseph's Tomb, a Jewish shrine guarded by Israeli troops. Gun fights erupted at the site, witnesses said. Police said an Israeli bus came under fire in the West Bank near Jerusalem and one passenger was wounded. |
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