[An Israeli tank shell hits a Palestinian neighborhood in the West Bank town of Hebron-Al Khalil, June 25, 2001 during a fierce gunbattle between Palestinians and Israeli occupation troops. Read photo caption below]. 


JERUSALEM (Islamweb & Agencies) - Fresh Intifadha confrontations in the West Bank threatened to overshadow talks on Tuesday between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush aimed at holding together a shaky Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.
While Sharon prepared for his White House meeting with Bush, Palestinian Resistance men opened fire on Monday on a Jewish settlement in Hebron, unleashing the fiercest fighting in the divided West Bank city since the cease-fire began 13 days ago.
Twelve Palestinians and five Israelis were wounded in the tense city -- often a flashpoint of violence in nearly nine months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Television pictures showed wounded Israeli settlers and occupation soldiers being loaded onto ambulances while gunfire crackled around them.
Occupation troops crouched behind concrete blocks in front of residential homes firing at Palestinians shooting from the hilltops above.
A Palestinian group that is an offshoot of President Yasser Arafat's Fateh faction said it fired on the Jewish settlement to avenge the killing on Sunday of a resistance leader who died in an explosion in a telephone booth in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Palestinians accused Israel of ``assassinating'' Osama Jawabreh in the latest of what they say have been some 30 such killings since the uprising erupted in September. But Israeli War Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer denied Israel was responsible.
Eight Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed since U.S. CIA Director George Tenet's cease-fire plan took effect on June 13. Each side blames the other for violating the truce.
NO TALKS BEFORE WHAT IS CALLED “VIOLENCE” ENDS
Israel Channel One television said Sharon and his entourage -- in New York to address the America-Israeli Friendship League -- received reports on the Hebron shoot-out and repeated vows not to resume peacemaking before what they call violence ends.
Speaking at a reception for Jewish leaders at Israel's Consulate-General in New York, Sharon again called Arafat ``the head of a terrorist gang'' and said that the world must relate to him as such.
The remarks reflected the tough line Sharon has taken against the Palestinians since starting his three-day U.S. visit on Sunday.
He made similar remarks several weeks ago in an interview with Russian television in which he called Arafat ``a murderer and a pathological liar.''
On his way to New York, during a stopover in London where he met British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sharon said: ``Israel is adamant in its position not to conduct negotiations under fire.''
Sharon's White House visit -- Arafat has yet to receive an invitation from Bush -- comes ahead of a Middle East tour by Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell, who is to arrive in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said on Monday he would not be taking any new proposals with him.
SETTLEMENT FREEZE
Powell said violence had to subside further before the Mitchell plan could kick in. The plan calls for Israel to freeze construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
On Monday, Ben-Eliezer said he had ordered the army to dismantle 15 illegal outposts in the West Bank. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel had already effective froze activity in Jewish settlements.
Jewish settlements, illegal under international law, are built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want for an independent state.
``We are going through the George Tenet work plan, which hopefully will improve security coordination, calm things down to a level where the sides will agree to announce the beginning of the cooling-off period to the Mitchell plan,'' Powell said.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, Arafat's aide, said Israel was blocking the chances of success of the international efforts to bring an end to the bloodshed and a return to peacemaking.
``The coming days are sensitive and decisive and represent a test for these international efforts and also a real test for the Israeli intentions,'' he told the Palestinian news agency.
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PHOTO CAPTION

A kite flies as an Israeli tank shell hits a Palestinian neighborhood in the West Bank town of Hebron June 25, 2001 during a fierce gunbattle between Palestinians and Israeli occupation troops. The renewed violence in the West Bank threatened to overshadow talks between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush on June 26. (Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuters)
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