JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation soldiers fired tear gas and warning shots on Saturday at groups of Palestinians and foreigners protesting in the West Bank against Israel's blockade of Palestinian areas. (Read photo caption below)
Palestinian police said they had arrested three Islamic Jihad activists and confiscated weapons, responding to intense Israeli and international pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to crack down on militants.
Israeli occupation soldiers confronted about 100 demonstrators, including Palestinians and British, French and Italian citizens, who set ablaze an empty army post near Ramallah to protest against Israeli ``harassment and intimidation.''
Organizers of the protest said dozens of Britons, Italians and French people joined in under the umbrella of ``The International Solidarity Movement,'' trying to escort Palestinian students to nearby Bir Zeit university.
Palestinian students have had difficulty reaching the university in Ramallah because of the Israeli blockade.
Demonstrators tried to topple concrete slabs serving as a checkpoint close to Ramallah. There were no injuries.
Witnesses said occupation soldiers also fired warning shots near some 100 Palestinians and foreigners, mainly French and Italian, who marched toward Israeli tanks at a checkpoint south of Nablus.
After its weekly meeting on Friday, the Palestinian cabinet urged Washington to send envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region, saying the leadership was ready to show what it had done to meet Washington's conditions for his return.
Zinni, a retired Marine Corps general, left the region earlier this month after witnessing some of the worst violence of the 15-month Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The United States said he would return only if Palestinians took more concrete steps to end attacks by militants and if Israelis eased restrictions on Palestinians.
The funeral of a suspected Palestinian Resistance bomber killed by Israeli troops in Gaza on Friday highlighted the difficulty in meeting the U.S. demand to stop militant attacks on Israelis.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A Palestinian demonstrator jumps with a Palestinian flag after Israeli occupation soldiers threw teargas at a checkpoint in the West Bank City of Ramallah, December 29, 2001. Israeli occupation soldiers fired tear gas and warning shots at groups of Palestinians and foreign demonstrators protesting Israel's blockade of Palestinian areas. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)