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Continued Israeli Violence Amid Palestinian Anniversary
GAZA CITY, Nov 15 (News Agencies) - A Palestinian man was killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli army raid on a Gaza Strip refugee camp, as Palestinians marked the 13th anniversary of Yasser Arafat's declaration of the Palestinian state, news agencies reported.
The unidentified man was shot in the head in clashes following an Israeli incursion into Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, said Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He died Thursday morning Palestinian hospital sources said, bringing to 971 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, in September 2000.
Witnesses said seven homes belonging to Palestinians were seriously damaged by Israeli tanks in the raid before Israeli forces partially withdrew from Palestinian-controlled land.
Meanwhile, Washington was said to have another go at peace initiatives in the Middle East in the wake of its successful campaign in Afghanistan.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell next week will unveil a new U.S. strategy to end the strife in the Middle East and restart talks aimed at creating a Palestine state,
The New York Times said Thursday quoting U.S. officials, reported AFP.
The State Department has downplayed hopes that Powell will announce a new U.S. initiative for the Middle East in a key foreign policy speech he is to deliver during a visit to the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Senior officials in George W. Bush's administration told the Times that the speech would be directed as an emotional appeal to both sides to take concrete steps toward peace, not as a blueprint plan that somehow breaks from previous U.S. positions.
A draft of the speech, the officials said, would urge Israel to stop building new settlements in Palestinian areas once a ceasefire is in place and negotiations are resumed.
The speech, the officials said, would not address the issue of Jerusalem, but will leave the controversial issue for the final stage of peace negotiations.
On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher dismissed widespread speculation that Powell's address would focus on efforts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table as premature.
"It's going to be a serious foreign policy address," Boucher said of the speech to be given on Monday. "Whether it's partially, predominantly or somewhat about the Middle East, I can't tell you at this point."
Former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin told Israeli public radio that the main change in U.S. policy since the start of the declared war on terror would be to insist on going straight into the Mitchell peace plan without waiting for a week of total calm, as demanded by Israel's rightwing prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
"The United States has the intention of increasing its involvement in the Middle East in the coming days, notably by renouncing [the call for] seven days of a halt in violence," Beilin said. He spoke after meeting U.S. State Department officials in Washington.
An international panel headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell produced the Mitchell plan. It calls for a ceasefire, a six-week cooling off period and a freeze on Jewish settlements and various confidence-building measures, before a return to political talks.
However, the Palestinian Authority warned Wednesday it will reject any interim deals with Israel and called for a final settlement on key issues.
Meanwhile in Nablus, the Palestinian Authority has promised to release an Islamic Jihad leader from Jenin whose arrest sparked major rioting in the northern West Bank town, an official from Jihad said Thursday.
"Jihad has received a promise from the Palestinian Authority that it would free Mahmud Tawalbeh today," said the official. He admitted, however, that he was not certain the pledge would be kept.
Around 3,000 angry Palestinians attacked a police station Jenin late Wednesday with firearms, grenades and stones in protest at the arrest of Tawalbeh. The 20-year-old is the Jenin leader of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigade, Jihad's armed wing.
Palestinian security forces refused to disclose Tawalbeh's whereabouts Thursday for reasons of safety.
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