Palestinians were preparing mass demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, as tempers were still boiling over a new US law demanding the US embassy in Israel be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Three Palestinians were wounded as the Israeli occupation army continued its sweep of the West Bank, while sporadic incidents took place in the Gaza Strip, security sources on both sides said Friday.

The resistance Islamic group Hamas called for a march to protest the US law it feels is an attack on the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The mass protest is also expected to celebrate the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation as it enters its third year. It will take place in the Hamas stronghold of Jabalya, the refugee camp where first intifada erupted in 1987.

Protestors will also voice their support for Mohammad Deif, a Hamas military leader who tops Israel's wanted list and who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt last week.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, another demonstration against the new US law is being organised by the National and Islamic Occupation forces, an umbrella organisation grouping all main Palestinian resistance groups.

US President George W. Bush had opposed insertion of the language on Jerusalem into the bill authorizing funding for the State Department, but he still signed the bill.

Even so, he said that if the provisions on Jerusalem were construed as mandatory rather than advisory, they would impermissibly interfere with the his constitutional authority to formulate foreign policy, speak for the nation in international affairs and determine the terms on which recognition is given to foreign states.

He added that "US policy regarding Jerusalem has not changed."

But two years after the intifada erupted on Jerusalem's disputed holy site, the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the law sent shockwaves through the region.

"I call on Muslim and Christian nations to act against any decision attacking (the status) of Jerusalem," Arafat said Thursday.

The same day, his Palestinian Authority called for an emergency meeting of an Arab ministers' committee to counter the law, while Iran urged the Al-Qods (Jerusalem) committee of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to meet on the issue.

Meanwhile in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, the Israeli occupation army staged a fresh raid Friday, sparking clashes that left three Palestinians injured, Palestinian security sources said.

A group of young stone-throwers confronted Israeli tanks and jeeps as they stormed the city centre, and occupation soldiers retaliated by firing live bullets, the sources said.

As the occupation army continued its crackdown on suspected Palestinian resistance men and their families, a total of 18 Palestinians were captured by Israeli occupation troops overnight, including at least four near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

In the Gaza Strip, the occupation army also reported several incidents, including an "anti-tank missile fired on an occupation army position" and mortar shells on the southern Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim. No injuries were reported.

In an interview published Friday by the Al-Hayat daily, Arafat's number two in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Mahmud Abbas, said the Palestinians have a plan to calm the conflict with Israel.

"We can start by implementing security wherever it is possible, like in Gaza where there are remains of the (Palestinian) security services," said Abbas, better known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mazen.

However, Israel must guarantee that it will halt killings, invasions of Palestinian areas and destruction of property, he said.
"The guarantees must come from Israel and the United States," he said. "If this doesn't happen, the calm would not last."

A plan by Israel to withdraw its occupation troops from Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip collapsed in August before it was completed.


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The US embassy in Tel Aviv