HIGHLIGHTS: Ben-Eliezer Declines Comments on Talks||Peres Claims His Government is Seeking a Ceasefire||Israelis Claim Destroying a Palestinian Arms Factory in Gaza||UN Calls for Israel's Withdrawal from Reoccupied Palestinian Cities||Occupation Troops Kill a 14-year Old Palestinian in Nablus|| STORY: Israel and the Palestinians held high-level security talks on Monday night, keeping dialogue alive after a surge in attacks by Palestinian Resistance drew tougher Israeli measures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzak al-Yahya, Mohammed Dahlan -- a security adviser to President Yasser Arafat -- and intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi, Palestinian officials said.

A spokesman for Ben-Eliezer declined comment on the talks, convened late on Monday after the defense chief ordered a travel ban in much of the West Bank. This followed a Palestinian bombing in Israel and a shooting in East Jerusalem on Sunday.

Israeli officials said last week Ben-Eliezer had planned to meet Yahya to discuss security cooperation and easing hardships for Palestinians in seven West Bank cities reoccupied by Israel in June after an earlier wave of bombings.

"We want to make humanitarian and economic gestures and move toward a cease-fire," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said, asked about talks with the Palestinians after returning from a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Both sides have insisted that a security dialogue and the talks Peres held with Palestinian moderates in July after a four-month freeze do not constitute peace negotiations.

U.N. CALLS FOR ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL

The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution on Monday expressing grave concern over Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian cities and the "dire humanitarian situation" facing Palestinians.

The resolution, drafted jointly by European Union and Palestinian envoys and approved by 114 to four with 11 abstentions, demands the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities and towns and stresses the need for free access to Palestinian areas at all times by medical and humanitarian relief organizations. It "condemns also all attacks against civilians on both sides."

It takes a far softer line on Israel than an earlier Palestinian draft that was harshly critical of the Jewish state. Diplomats said the revisions reflected the Palestinians' desire to obtain broad support for the measure among the General Assembly's 189 member nations.

ISRAEL CLAIMS DESTROYING A PALESTINIAN ARMS FACTORY IN GAZA CITY

Despite the security talks, Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at what the occupation army claimed was a Palestinian arms factory in Gaza City, setting the metal foundry ablaze and wounding two people.

The helicopter attack was the first since an Israeli air raid on July 22 on Gaza City that killed the military commander of the Resistance Hamas group, his deputy and 13 other Palestinians, including nine children.

OCCUPATION ARMY KILLS A 14-YEAR OLD YOUTH IN NABLUS

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Arafat has his headquarters, Palestinians reported tank reinforcements on its outskirts. They said they feared Israel was readying a large-scale push into the city center.

Palestinians also reported military reinforcements around Jenin, further to the north.

In Nablus, Israeli soldiers fired at a group of Palestinians breaking curfew, killing a 14-year-old youth, Palestinian witnesses said. An army spokesman had no comment.

In an indication there would be no let-up in a surge of Palestinian Resistance bombings, a car blew up outside the northern Israeli Arab town of Umm el Fahm, killing a passenger who police suspect was a bomber on his way to carry out an attack.

Police said they believed explosives carried by the bomber detonated prematurely before he could reach an Israeli city. The driver of the vehicle, identified by Israeli media reports as an Israeli Arab, was wounded.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians run and crawl for cover following an Israeli helicopter attack in Gaza Strip August 5, 2002. Israeli military helicopters fired three missiles at a foundry in Gaza City which the Israeli armed forces said was a Palestinian weapons factory. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuter