Gunfights flared in the West Bank and Gaza Strip today after Palestinians vowed revenge for a teenager shot dead by Israeli troops.
Witnesses and the Israeli army reported gunfire exchanges near the settlements of Neve Dekalim and Dugit in the Gaza Strip, and battles near the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Hospital officials said at least 26 Palestinians were wounded.
Meanwhile a spokesman for Israel's new leader Mr Ariel Sharon confirmed that he had offered the defence portfolio to outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a bid to lure his defeated Labour rivals into a unity coalition with his rightwing Likud party.
Earier today a UN team started an investigation into human rights violations in the occupied territories during the Palestinian uprising in a move already rejected by the Israeli government.
Israel reiterated it would not cooperate with the week-long inquiry by the team that is due to report to the annual UN commission on Human Rights that opens its six-week session on March 19th.
Israel described as vile, violent and one-sided a UN resolution passed in October that charged it with war crimes in the occupied territories.
The UN mission is due to begin its field work in Gaza before heading on to Jerusalem and West Bank sites.
The death toll since the Palestinian uprising broke out in September is now at least 384, mostly Palestinians.
The violence emphasised hurdles Israel's Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon must surmount as he seeks to forge a coalition and weighs strategy for Palestinian peace talks in the face of militant Islamic threats to bomb targets in Israel to create a balance of terror.
Reuters