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Monday, February 12 5:41 PM SGT
Two Palestinians killed as Sharon launches diplomatic offensive in US
JERUSALEM, Feb 12 (AFP) -
Two Palestinians were killed in renewed bloodletting Monday as Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon prepared to send off a team of envoys to the United States in a
diplomatic offensive to explain his tough line on the peace process.
On the home front, the right-wing Sharon was pursuing efforts to build a workable coalition government following his stunning election victory over incumbent Labour
premier Ehud Barak six days ago.
The killing of the two Palestinians in separate clashes in the West Bank early Monday brought to 400 the number of lives lost in the violence that has raged across the region
over the past four and a half months.
Fighting has spiked up sharply in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since Sharon's election on Tuesday, which provoked warnings from Palestinian groups that they would
escalate their intifada or uprising with a string of "days of rage."
Atef Ahmed Al-Nabulsi, a 35-year-old taxi driver, was shot and killed when he became caught up in a gunfight near the West Bank town of Ramallah and another two people
were injured, including a 13-year-old boy, Palestinian medical officials said.
Earlier, 20-year-old Zyad Abu Sway was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while he was walking along a road near the Arab village of al-Khader near Bethlehem, and another
Palestinian was injured, medical officials said.
In all, 333 Palestinians, a German, 13 Israeli Arabs and 53 other Israelis including Jewish settlers and soldiers have been killed in the violence triggered by Sharon's
controversial visit to a hotly contested holy site in occupied east Jerusalem in late September.
Security has also been boosted around Jerusalem following the killing by Palestinians Sunday night of a Jewish settler as he was driving on a road south of Jerusalem. The
funeral of Tzahi Sasson, 35, is due to take place later Monday.
Sharon is despatching a delegation to the United States on Monday for talks with officials from the new administration of George W. Bush and members of Congress, while
representatives of his Likud party are due to meet Labour members for talks on national unity later Monday.
"We are going to the United States to tell them that we cannot conduct negotiations while the violence continues on the ground and that it will be difficult to reach a final
accord and it would better to reach interim agreements," delegation member Moshe Arens told public radio.
The team is being led by former ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval, who is Sharon's diplomatic advisor, and also includes former Israeli ambassador to the United
Nations Dori Gold as well as Arens, a former defence minister.
Sharon is also due to send envoys to France, Belgium and Russia, Israeli radio reported.
The election of the 72-year-old hawkish former general drew a lukewarm response from much of the international community concerned about what his hardline policies
would mean for the future of peacemaking.
Jibril Rajoub, head of Palestinian preventive security in the West Bank, said the root of the violence was the near 34-year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
"The violence is first and foremost on the side of the occupation and to restore calm the next government must help the Palestinian Authority by taking measures to ease the
suffering of the Palestinian population," he told Israeli public radio, speaking in Hebrew.
Bush said Friday that Sharon must be given time to assemble a government and stressed that his victory over Barak -- whose saw his bold hopes of peace dashed by the
Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed -- did not doom the Middle East peace process.
"I certainly hope that people recognize that change does not necessarily mean that the peace process won't go forward," Bush said after speaking to Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat.