Israel Expects Violence to Last; Death Toll Rises

As Israel warned that the violent unrest engulfing the West Bank and Gaza Strip may drag on for the next year, at least two more Palestinians were shot and killed Tuesday in clashes with Israeli soldiers. A third, a 13-year-old boy, died of injuries suffered in last week’s rioting.

Late Tuesday, after gunfire on the Jewish settlement of Psagot just east of this West Bank Palestinian city, Israeli tanks retaliated by firing three shells into an unfinished building in nearby Al Birah, an army spokeswoman said. There were no reports of injuries, but the army said the structure, which it described as the site of the earlier shooting, was destroyed.

An Israeli army spokesman said there was no end in sight Tuesday to nearly a month of rioting and confrontation that has left more than 120 people dead and thousands of others injured in Palestinian territories and parts of Israel.

“Our assessment of the situation is that the Palestinians have made a strategic decision,” Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, the army’s chief spokesman, told Israel Radio. “It is not going to be a short-term conflict.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who spent much of the day pushing ahead with efforts to form a new emergency government with the political opposition, accused Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat of choosing the “path of confrontation” to win concessions from Israel.

“Violence will get them nothing,” Barak said of the Palestinians, his onetime peace partners, during a visit to the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi. “Faced with violence, we will know how to act--and to win.”

With no apparent prospect of a Middle East peace deal--or, for now, even a cease-fire--Barak is focused on his immediate political survival. The Israeli parliament is due to return Monday from a three-month recess. Unless the prime minister can broaden his minority coalition by then, his government is likely to fall, with new elections to follow.

Barak’s aides held talks for a second day with the opposition Likud Party, which is led by right-wing politician Ariel Sharon, on the possibility of forming a unity government. Palestinians have said Sharon’s inclusion in the government would end any lingering hopes for peace.

“If they get Sharon in their government, they are putting a mercy bullet in the head of the peace process,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN.

But Barak appealed to Israel’s diverse political factions to join his government in a time of national crisis. “Friends, now is a time of national emergency, and at such a time, brothers walk together,” he said.

It was Sharon’s Sept. 28 visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site--known to Muslims as Haram al Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount--that ignited the current unrest.

Sharon has said he is willing to join forces if Barak first commits himself to a “different diplomatic plan” that would involve stepping back from concessions Barak offered to the Palestinians at a Camp David summit in July.

The talks with the Likud Party remained inconclusive Tuesday, but Barak and Sharon have indicated that they expect to reach a deal.

In Washington, President Clinton suggested Tuesday that if Israel and the Palestinians abide by all elements of a cease-fire agreement reached last week in Egypt--so far they have not kept any of them--he might invite Barak and Arafat to the White House separately to revive talks on a final peace agreement.

Clinton spoke by telephone for about 30 minutes with Arafat on Tuesday, White House spokesman P. J. Crowley said.

On the streets of the West Bank and Gaza, morning rain and chilly winds seemed to dampen the mood for confrontation, if only marginally. Fewer boys and young men than expected turned out for the day’s demonstrations and clashes in the West Bank, although large crowds took part again in Gaza.

Two Palestinians were shot and killed in confrontations with Israeli troops: a 17-year-old boy in the Gaza Strip near the Erez crossing point into Israel and a 22-year-old near the West Bank town of Janin. The 13-year-old boy died of wounds suffered Saturday in a clash in Gaza, according to Palestinian reports.

For Palestinian Muslims, Tuesday was a holiday marking the ascension of the prophet Muhammad into heaven from Jerusalem. It also was an occasion to call a series of demonstrations protesting Israel’s closure of its borders to Palestinian workers. The closure has created economic and physical hardships for many.

At midafternoon, about 150 people protesting the closure marched toward an Israeli checkpoint at the southern end of Ramallah, where they burned tires and briefly threw stones at soldiers before dispersing. No one was injured, although clashes later erupted at a trouble spot on the city’s northern edge.

There were larger demonstrations in Gaza, where protesters unfurled a huge Palestinian flag and marched toward Israeli checkpoints.

In Jordan, meanwhile, in a demonstration that underlined the potential for regional instability, more than 10,000 Palestinian refugees marched toward an Israeli-controlled border crossing to demand the right of return to their families’ former homes inside what is now Israel.

Jordanian police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. More than 100 people, including protesters and police, were reported injured.

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Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.