BBC

Friday, 11 May, 2001, 14:30 GMT 15:30 UK

Violence spreads in Palestinian towns

A police post, houses and cars were destroyed in the Israeli raid

Renewed clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday.

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli troops near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel.

Palestinian hospital officials said the teenager had been shot in the chest while he and dozens of other protesters were throwing stones at the soldiers.

In a separate incident in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israeli troops fired tear gas and sniper fire at several hundred demonstrators. The Palestinians responded with machine guns.

The confrontations followed another Israeli incursion into a Palestinian area in southern Gaza in which a Palestinian police post was reported to have been destroyed.

The Israeli military has said there will be no let-up in the army incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Military sources quoted on Israeli radio said the Fatah movement of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, along with Palestinian security and bodyguard units were now considered enemies.

BBC Jerusalem correspondent Peter Biles says both sides are warning of a grave escalation of the crisis.

Incursions

The Israeli army is reported to have penetrated about 700 metres into the Palestinian-controlled town of Deir el-Balah early on Friday, destroying a police position and several houses.

Israeli radio said the raid was mounted after two Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a grenade attack in the southern Gaza Strip.

They said the assailants had been seen fleeing towards the police post.

Our correspondent says operations by Israeli troops which involve temporarily moving into Palestinian-controlled areas to flush out gunmen are becoming almost routine.

A senior adviser of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted the Gaza incursions were part of a long-term military effort to suppress the Palestinian uprising.

"This is not tit for tat," Dore Gold was quoted as saying by the French AFP news agency.

"This is a long-term strategy. It will be a continuous effort and only with determination, with patience as well as perseverance can we bring an end to this violence."

Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops battled late into Thursday night near Rafah, close to the Egypt-Gaza border.

Palestinian sources say one Palestinian was wounded in an exchange of fire.

And security officials said the army also barred all Palestinian traffic on the main highways linking the north and the south of the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting the territory in two.

'War of terror'

At least 20 people were injured in Thursday's attack on the security headquarters in Gaza City, Palestinians say.

It is the first time the building has been targeted in seven months of fighting.

Israeli military sources said the attack was in response to a bomb explosion that killed two Romanians repairing an Israeli border fence.

Palestinian officials condemned what they called a "war of terror" against their people.

More than 400 Palestinians and about 80 Israelis have been killed in more than seven

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001