HIGHLIGHTSArafat Predicts Israel-Palestinian Conflict Will Further Worsen Under New Israeli Coalition|*|3 Palestinians Killed, 6 Others Wounded in Gaza Explosion|*|Palestinian Resistance Man Wounds Israeli Occupation Soldier Before Getting Killed in a Shoot out Near an Internationally Illegal Jewish Settlement in the West Bank|*|An Israeli Occupation Soldier, Palestinian Youth Wounded in a Gun Battle in Tulkarm|*|Israel Arrests a Lebanese Hizbollah Activist Sent to Israel to Organize Palestinian Attacks|*|
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STORY:Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warned Thursday against any U.S. strike on Iraq, saying it would have catastrophic consequences in the Middle East and urged resolving the conflict through the United Nations.

In a joint interview with Associated Press Television News and an Israeli TV station, Arafat also predicted the Israel-Palestinian conflict will worsen now that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon depends on far-right and religious parties to cling to power.

Warning against a U.S. strike on Iraq, Arafat said, "I hope that this war will not take place because this will lead to a catastrophe in the whole area of the Middle East."

Arafat also said he remains committed to achieving peace with Israel despite two years of fighting and said he considers suicide attacks against Israeli civilians to be immoral.

Arafat said Israel's repeated killing of Palestinian resistance suspects accused of terrorism has sabotaged his efforts to reach agreements with the armed resistance groups to end attacks on Israelis. He pledged to work to end such attacks if Israel withdrew from the Palestinian areas that it has occupied in the past two years.

Arafat expressed concern about the moderate Labor Party's pullout from Sharon's coalition on Wednesday, and Thursday's news that Israel's new defense minister would be tough-talking former military chief Shaul Mofaz.

3 PALESTINIANS KILLED, 6 OTHERS WOUNDED IN GAZA BLAST

Meanwhile, violence continued Thursday as three Palestinians, members of the resistance Hamas group, were killed in a blast that appeared to have been caused by a bomb that went off prematurely.

Six other people were injured in the blast, which occurred in the garage of a house in a crowded Gaza city neighborhood.

Two of the wounded, also Hamas members, were in serious condition, medical officials said. Among the wounded was a 75-year-old man and a 10-year-old girl, the daughter of a Hamas resistance activist.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian resistance man opened fire at an Israeli occupation army vehicle near the internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Beit El, wounding one occupation soldier before being shot and killed by an officer in the vehicle.

An officer identified as Maj. Idan said he shot the attacker after coming under fire and that the attacker used an olive grove as cover to open fire on the vehicle as it passed.

TULKARM GUN BATTLE

An occupation army unit traded fire in a 30-minute gun battle with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Occupation soldiers penetrated a few yards inside Tulkarem refugee camp when the Brigades opened fire on them from the camp's alleyways. The Brigades thought at least one Israeli was shot because they could hear a soldier crying. The occupation troops escaped after about 30 minutes and an 18-year-old Palestinian male was hit in the chest by random fire.

ISRAEL ARRESTS HIZBOLLAH ACTIVIST

A senior Lebanese resistance activist who was sent to Israel to organize Palestinian attacks has been arrested. An Israeli government statement on Wednesday said that Fawzi Ayoub, 38, who fought with the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, was arrested in June.

According to the Israeli statement, Ayoub spent some years in Canada and entered Israel in October 2000 on a forged U.S. passport, the statement said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Fawzi Ayoub, 38, appears in a courtroom in Tel Aviv Thursday Oct. 31, 2002. Ayoub, a senior Lebanese resistance leader who was sent to Israel to organize Palestinian attacks according to the Israeli government was arrested last June after he entered Israel on a forged U.S. passport. (AP Photo/Eric Sultan)
- Oct 31 2:34