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Palestinians wage gun battles with Israeli troops

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February 6, 2001 

GAZA CITY-- (AP) - Palestinians said Monday they would turn Israel's election into a "day of rage," Islamic militants threatened to set off bombs and the Israeli army announced a tight closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to contain violence.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, Palestinians waged a gun battle with Israeli troops, and at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, an Israeli tank fired 20 shells, apparently in response to Palestinian gunfire.

Such clashes have been an almost daily occurrence in more than four months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that has killed 384 people, including 323 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs, 47 other Israelis and a German doctor.

During most of this time, Israel has restricted Palestinian travel. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is trailing hawkish challenger Ariel Sharon by 20 points in the polls, tightened the ban, ordering most Palestinians in the West Bak confined to their communities in an attempt to prevent attacks on Israelis before the election.

Marwan Barghouti, leader of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, said demonstrations were planned Tuesday in the West Bank. A Fatah leaflet said Tuesday would be a "day of rage" against Israel.

"The message we want to send to the Israeli society with the demonstrations is that the uprising will continue, regardless of who the prime minister of Israel is," Barghouti said. "The Israelis will find out after a week, and maximum after a few months that Sharon is a failure and that he can't bring them security."

Fatah also called a commercial strike in the West Bank, to start at 1 p.m. (1100 gmt).

In the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire Tuesday afternoon. The army imposed a curfew on 30,000 Palestinians living in the downtown area Israel controls. An exchange of fire was also reported near the Gaza town of Rafah. Palestinian police said an Israeli tank fired about 20 shells.

In Gaza City, the militant Islamic Jihad group buried one of its activists, 22-year--old Shadi Kahlout, who was shot dead by Israeli troops over the weekend when he tried to climb across the fence between Gaza and Israel. Islamic Jihad said Kahlout was on his way to Israel to carry out a bombing, and had 20 kilos (44 pounds) of TNT strapped to his body. The group said it would continue with Kahlout's "holy mission."

About 1,000 Palestinians attended Kahlout's funeral. Masked men wearing masks carried the body covered covered with a Palestinian flag and the black Jihad flag. Several of the masked activists had belts stuffed with mock explosives strapped to their bodies.

Mourners fired guns in the air and waved Palestinian flags, shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great." The leader of the procession promised through loudspeakers that "the coming operation will be in the middle of Tel Aviv."

Islamic Jihad said it would continue the attacks regardless of who is elected to be Israel's next premier.

"All of us are ready to become martyrs on our way to Jerusalem," said 23-year-old Moussa Hassan, a friend of Kahlout's. "We do not fear death and aggression. God promises us victory or heaven and we will knock on the gates of heaven with the skulls of the Jews."