On a day in which three more Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli troops, the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, vowed yesterday that the Intifada uprising would continue. This was despite Israeli helicopter rocket attacks on the bases of his security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.
"Our people will continue the Al Aqsa uprising until we raise the Palestinian flag in every mosque and church and on the walls of Jerusalem," declared Mr Arafat, whose home was damaged in the aerial attack.
Palestinians reported yesterday that a policeman was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops near the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, and that two teenage boys were shot dead in clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint between Gaza and Israel.
In the divided West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli tanks fired shells and directed machinegun fire at the Palestinian neighbourhood of Abu Sneineh after gunmen positioned there fired on the city's Jewish enclave. A 10month-old Jewish infant, Shalhevet Pass, was shot dead by Palestinian snipers positioned in Abu Sneineh on Monday.
Alluding to the bombing of installations of Mr Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard unit, the Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, said yesterday that terrorist acts had been carried out by Force 17 members, and that the aerial assault was meant as a warning to the Palestinians. "I view Yasser Arafat as a partner who makes blunders," he said, "and it is incumbent on us to bring these blunders to his attention."