No sign of cooling between Israelis, Palestinians

Palestinian youths who were hurling stones at an Israeli police jeep run from gunfire in Gaza on Tuesday     WEB EXCLUSIVE On the scene with Mike Hanna in Jerusalem

West Bank, Gaza clashes leave 1 dead, several wounded

In this story: No 'short-lived adventure' Barak pushes for new government RELATED STORIES, SITES

CNN Correspondent Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli soldiers in a Jerusalem suburb and Palestinians in a nearby Arab town exchanged gunfire Tuesday as the ever-widening rift between the two sides threatened to split the Mideast neighbors irrevocably.

In nearly a month of bitter fighting, at least 139 people have been killed, all but a few Palestinians or Israeli Arabs. The already tenuous peace process, begun in Oslo, Norway, in 1993, appeared to be seriously damaged.

VIDEO CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney reports on Monday's developments (October 24) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN interviewed Gilead Sher, senior Barak adviser, and Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator back-to-back Tuesday evening (October 24) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Mideast peace     RESOURCES Mideast struggle for peace     ALSO Time.com Diaries of hope and hate: Five days in the Middle East

On an Islamic holiday marking the day the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, Palestinians in Beit Jalla fired into the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, prompting Israeli soldiers to retaliate with machine guns and tracer fire.

The Palestinians blame the Israelis for starting the violence, which began on September 28 following Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, the Jewish shrine on the same site as al-Aqsa and another Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock.

The Arabs call the site -- home to the sole remaining wall from the Jewish King Solomon's ancient temple -- Haram as-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary.

No 'short-lived adventure'

Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers in Hebron and Nablus on Tuesday, amid burning tires and a near constant rain of stones mixed with gunfire from both sides.

A Palestinian man, said by the Israeli Defense Force to be a member of the Palestinian Tanzim militia, was killed in the Hebron fighting. Palestinians deny that the 60-year-old man was a member of Tanzim.

Three Palestinians were injured in Beit Jalla. No injuries were reported in Gilo, which overlooks the valley where Beit Jalla lies. The Palestinians claim that Gilo, built on land seized by Israel during the 1967 war, sits on land belonging to Beit Jalla.

Israeli officials insist that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat controls the violence and could stop it any time. Until he does, the Israelis say, their security forces will protect Israel.

"The assessment of the situation by the general headquarters ... is that we are not talking about a short-lived adventure," Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey said on Israel's Army radio.

Barak pushes for new government

While West Bank and Gaza streets reverberated with the clunk of stones and sharp bursts of staccato gunfire, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pursued the formation of a national unity government before the Israeli Knesset reconvenes on Sunday.

Barak -- who has called a "timeout" in the peace process to evaluate the status of talks -- held discussions with opposition leader Sharon on Monday. But the negotiations ended when Sharon, looking for veto power of security measures put in place by Barak, rejected Barak's proposals for the right-wing Likud Party to join the government.

The Israeli prime minister had not given up on drawing Sharon -- a man reviled by Palestinians for his failure to act on a massacre of Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christians during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon -- into the government.

But Palestinians said that an Israeli government that included Sharon -- who opposes any land for peace deals -- would spell the end of the peace process, and some of Barak's current ministers said they would resign rather than serve in a government with Sharon.

More Middle East killings as Arab nations confer on crisis
October 21, 2000
Israel considers 'timeout' as Mideast clashes intensify
October 20, 2000
Israelis, Palestinians trade charges at U.N. session
October 18, 2000
Mideast violence continues, cease-fire denounced
October 18, 2000
Clashes in West Bank, Gaza blaze on despite agreement
October 17, 2000

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