Palestinians Israel

The Bush Administration on Monday angrily protested Israel's effort to deport more Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, suggesting that the action could jeopardize efforts to bring about peace between Israel and its neighbors.

Israel said Sunday that it was delaying the transfer of about $89 million in tax revenue belonging to the Palestinian Authority, the latest sign of souring relations in connection with a proposed unity government between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel was concerned that the money — including customs fees and taxes collected by Israel on behalf of Palestinians — could eventually be used to benefit Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, if the militant group announces a new joint government with Fatah as expected later this week.

Israel told the United Nations on Sunday that it will neither take back the 415 Palestinians it expelled to southern Lebanon nor permit the Red Cross and the United Nations to assist them through territory it controls.

It is a leap in logic for the Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, to argue in his Feb. 13 Times Op-Ed article that because a parking lot has been built by Israel over part of the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, or that power and sewage lines have been placed underground, the Muslim cemetery ceases to exist. The crux of the dilemma is a simple moral one: The Wiesenthal Center is seeking to build a Center for Human Dignity on top of a Muslim cemetery, a historic landmark and a place held sacred by many.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators aimed to reach agreement on an American peace initiative in a second round of closed talks. The meeting at a kibbutz outside Jerusalem came one day after the sides held their first high-level talks in months. The talks were urged by the United States, which, after months of mediation, failed to get Israel to agree to withdraw its troops from an additional 13% of West Bank land.

The Israeli and Palestinian delegates jockeyed hard for position Monday before the Middle East peace talks, with the Palestinians claiming a victory by getting equal speaking time with other delegations and the Israelis complaining that the United States, in its first act as referee at the talks, had favored the Arabs. President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S.

Israeli soldiers traded pistols and rifles for brushes and brooms on Thursday, scrubbing down jail cells emptied of their last Palestinian prisoners just hours before, as the sprawling command center that anchored 27 years of Israel's military occupation here became a powerful symbol of the liberation now at hand.

A Palestinian militant was shot to death Saturday in front of his 2-year-old niece, who was injured, and Palestinians blamed Israel for the killing. In another West Bank community, Jericho, Israeli soldiers rocketed a Palestinian police base, injuring 17 people. An explosion this morning in a rubbish bin rocked the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, slightly wounding one person, police said.

Jubilant Palestinian peace negotiators claimed their first significant victory after 18 months of talks Wednesday when Israel agreed to permit 30 Arab activists, most of them now old men who were deported about two decades ago, to return to their homes in Israeli-occupied territory. "This is the beginning of the unraveling of the whole (Israeli) policy of deportation," said Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation.

The Israeli navy said Monday that it had captured a boat loaded with long-range weaponry destined for Palestinian fighters. The announcement of the confiscations came hours after a Palestinian baby was killed and two dozen civilians were wounded in heavy Israeli shelling of a refugee camp.

Israel, already on the defensive over European criticism of its policies, has picked a diplomatic fight with Sweden over an unsubstantiated newspaper "expose" suggesting that Israeli soldiers harvested the organs of Palestinians who died in army custody. The article in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet last Monday drew little attention until Israel demanded, two days later, that Sweden's government condemn it. Swedish officials refused, saying the newspaper has a constitutional right to free expression.

Men with satchels and briefcases come and go, negotiating into the night, slipping away in the morning, attempting to make peace in a place where it seems hardest to find. An Egyptian spy with a wisp of a mustache and an array of tailored suits listens to them all: the Israelis and the moderate and radical Palestinians, including those from the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

With mourners chanting calls for vengeance, the funeral procession wound its way through dusty streets on Sunday, bearing the shrouded bodies of a Palestinian mother, her grown son and young daughter. Civilians are increasingly at risk in Israel's nearly 2-week-old military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which in recent days has encompassed the use of heavy battlefield weapons such as tanks, assault helicopters and artillery on the edges of densely populated neighborhoods.

A Jewish settler was shot to death Friday by Palestinian militants in the southern West Bank, the latest spasm in nearly two weeks of scattered, back-and-forth violence. The drive-by shooting occurred hours after Israel reinstated a ban on Palestinians entering the country and launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket salvos by militants.

With automatic rifles clanking as they shifted in cramped seats, a dozen Palestinian fugitives sipped tiny cups of Arabic coffee and talked about an almost unthinkable notion: what life might be like after a cease-fire. "I'd get married," one said a bit dreamily. "I'd finish up my sociology degree," piped up another. "I'd find a normal job and take care of my family," said a third.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Monday began a whirl of new Middle East diplomacy, meeting with Israelis and Palestinians and declaring that he had new confidence the two sides would cooperate to arrange the election of a Palestinian Authority president.

Arab foreign ministers are expected to decide here today to delay the next round of peace negotiations with Israel at least a week beyond the Tuesday date set by President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, according to Arab diplomats and sources close to the deliberations in Syria.

Israeli soldiers shot dead six Palestinians, including a 7-year-old girl, and wounded more than 30 others in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as they protested Israel's deportation of more than 400 Islamic activists. It was the bloodiest day in the occupied territories in more than two years. Violence erupted immediately after Israeli authorities lifted a 10-day curfew at 3 p.m. in the volatile town of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians protested at a site where Israel is building its West Bank barrier, calling for a stop to the entire project after the Supreme Court halted construction on a 15-mile stretch. The halted section northwest of Jerusalem would cut off eight Palestinian villages from the rest of the West Bank. The Israeli court acted after retired army officers argued that a less intrusive route could be used. Israel says it needs the barrier to stop suicide bombers.

On the bloodiest day in two weeks of Israeli raids and military curfews in the seething West Bank city of Nablus, four Palestinians were shot to death after clashes erupted Saturday between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. Mohammed Masri, 17, was shot in the head during the funeral of his 15-year-old cousin Amjad Masri, who had been killed earlier in the day, Palestinian witnesses said. They said Masri was marching in the funeral procession when he was shot by an Israeli military gunman.