HIGHLIGHTS: Wounded Palestinians Include 7-year-old Girl and 10-year-old Boy||'Free Barghouti Campaign' Active in South Africa||32 Americans Killed in Palestinian-Israeli Battles|| STORY: Seven Palestinians and three Israeli occupation soldiers were wounded during clashes in Jenin in the northern West Bank, security sources on both sides said.

Palestinian security sources said four Palestinians were injured, one seriously, when an exchange of fire broke out as the occupation army was carrying out searches in houses in Jenin refugee camp.

Israeli occupation army sources said two of its soldiers injured in the same incident were in serious condition.

Three more Palestinians, a seven-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a teenager was injured later Friday in Jenin city when Israeli tanks opened automatic gunfire on nearby houses, Palestinians medical sources said.

Jenin is one of the main West Bank towns which have been re-occupied by the Israeli occupation army since mid-June.

Israeli occupation troops have since systematically arrested suspected militants in the areas and imposed strict curfews.

'FREE BARGHOUTI CAMPAIGN' ACTIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA

More than a thousand people allied to the anti-globalisation Palestinian Support Committee (PSC) night met in Johannesburg to launch a campaign to free Marwan Barghouti from prison in Israel.

"We are looking for the support of the South African people to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people," his wife Fadwa told the chanting, singing crowd.

Banners like "Globalise the Intifada against Imperialism" and "Stop the Holocaust of the Palestinians" were plastered around the packed Johannesburg city hall.

"Marwan Barghouti is a symbol of the Palestinian people," his lawyer Khader Shikrat said, calling for the release of "all Palestinian political prisoners".

"There is similarity between Israel and apartheid, between Nelson Mandela and our leader Marwan Barghouti," he said.

Marwan Barghouti, 42, is suspected of leading the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group that has claimed responsibility for numerous Resistance attacks.

Formerly the West Bank secretary-general of the Fatah group, he was seized by Israeli forces April 15 on suspicion of masterminding some of Al Aqsa's most violent attacks on Israelis.

MIDEAST BATTLES KILL 32 AMERICANS

Americans have been swept up by Israeli-Palestinian battles that began in September 2000, shortly after U.S.-brokered peace talks failed.

Thirty-two Americans have died so far and 50 others have been injured, including many who had dual Israeli-American citizenship. Most of the dead and wounded were victims of Palestinian attacks or were combat casualties while fighting in Israel's military. One of the dead and a few injured were Palestinian-Americans.

The American victims are a small fraction of nearly 2,500 people killed overall - more than 1,800 on the Palestinian side and more than 600 on the Israeli side.

Still, their deaths are a reminder that the United States' connection to the region is not only strategic, but deeply personal.

PHOTO CAPTION

A young Palestinian boy looks at the body of 13-year-old Abdel-Hadi al-Hamaydah before his funeral in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza Strip on August 30, 2002. Hamaydah was killed August 29 by Israeli gunfire in Rafah as he played near the rubble of house demolished in previous Israeli raids into the camp, a Palestinian official said. (Suhaib Salem/Reuter