MIDDLE EAST: Jewish extremists opposed to prime minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan yesterday traded blows with soldiers and hurled stones at Palestinians in Gaza, while inside Israel anti-pull-out protesters tried to block traffic across the country.
Prime minister Ariel Sharon, clearly worried by the escalating violence ahead of the Gaza evacuation, scheduled to begin in mid-August, told ministers yesterday that the government would use "an iron fist" against extremists.
In northern Israel, meanwhile, Hizbullah guerillas attacked Israeli forces along a disputed strip of territory, killing one soldier and wounding four others, in what Israeli observers said was a reaction to political developments inside Lebanon.
Israeli officers said the skirmish began when a Hizbullah cell crossed the border and exchanged fire with an army patrol in a disputed area, called the Shebaa Farms.
The Shia organisation says the area belongs to Lebanon but the UN has determined it is Syrian territory occupied by Israel and so is an issue that must be settled between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Hizbullah guerillas also fired mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli bases in the disputed area.
Hizbullah officials in Beirut blamed Israel for the violence, insisting that Israeli troops had crossed the border into Lebanon.
At least one Hizbullah fighter was reported killed in the gun battle. Israeli jets responded by pounding suspected Hizbullah positions in south Lebanon.
Israeli observers suggested that Hizbullah's failure to make major inroads in elections in Lebanon in recent weeks was behind the attack.
They also suggested that Hizbullah might be sending a message to political leaders in Beirut, where a government is in the making that will leave it with limited influence.
In Gaza, the dangers posed by Jewish extremists opposed to Mr Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 settlements there, was evident yesterday as a group of settlers who had moved into an abandoned Palestinian home clashed with Palestinians.
On one wall of the building, the settlers spray painted the words "Mohammed is a pig" in Hebrew.
The two sides threw rocks at each other as soldiers made a feeble attempt to stop the fracas. As a Palestinian youth lay unconscious, his head bloodied by a rock, some of the Jewish extremists continued to pelt him with stones from close range, a lone soldier trying to shelter him. Last night, he was said to be in a moderate condition.
Having promised to get tough with settlers who block roads in protest over the Gaza withdrawal, police yesterday used water cannon to disperse protesters blocking the highway at the entrance to Jerusalem, and moved in quickly to remove those blocking roads in other parts of the country.
While the protesters failed to disrupt traffic for long periods, they did force the police to deploy in the thousands - a tactic they hope to employ when the evacuation of settlements begins in mid-August and which they believe will draw security forces away from their mission in Gaza.
Earlier in the day, morning rush-hour traffic was halted on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway after opponents of withdrawal threw nails and oil on the road.