Bomb attack in West Bank as peace talks continue

A wounded Israeli soldier arrives at Haemek Hospital in Afula, Israel, with severe burns and internal injuries     WEB EXCLUSIVE Mike Hanna: Mideast officials on each side under pressure at home

Fourth day of talks began in Washington

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MEHOLA, West Bank (CNN) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber set off an explosion on Friday in a West Bank roadside cafe that killed him and wounded three Israeli soldiers, two of them seriously.

Three other Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza, bringing the death toll in three months of violence, as reported from figures supplied by both sides, to more than 370.

Israeli police said the bomber walked into a cafe near the Jewish settlement at Mehola in the northern tip of the West Bank, sat down and detonated his bomb. He died instantly.

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Mehola is about 70 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Jerusalem, in the Jordan Valley.

Eyewitnesses initially said that the explosion had also killed an Israeli, but police later determined that only the bomber died.

The same cafe was targeted by a suicide bomber in 1993.

Death toll rising

Elsewhere, a Palestinian man working in a greenhouse in the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza was shot and killed. The Palestinians said the man was shot by Israelis. Israelis said he was wounded by Palestinian gunfire and later died of his wounds.

At Beit-Hagai in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said a Jewish settler shot and killed a Palestinian who was attempting to enter the settlement.

And in Hebron, a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed in a clash with Israeli troops, Palestinians said. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Of the casualties in the current violence, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says that 319 of the dead were Palestinians, and Israeli officials say 39 were Israeli Jews and 13 were Israeli Arabs.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began a fourth day of talks aimed at ending not only the current round of violence, which began on September 28, but decades of hostile relations between the Mideast neighbors.

Palestinians, police clash in Jerusalem

Israeli security turned away Palestinians under the age of 45 and nonresidents of Jerusalem who came to worship at al-Aqsa mosque in the walled Old City on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

An estimated 18,000 Muslims were allowed into Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), the disputed holy site where al-Aqsa is located. Jews know the site as the Temple Mount, where their ancient Temple of Solomon once stood.

About 3,000 police, some on horseback, were deployed in the area, checking identity and watching the crowds.

Some of those denied access to the mosque compound scuffled with police or threw stones at them. Palestinians also scuffled with police in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but no major injuries were reported in either location.

'Everything' on the table

At Washington's Bolling Air Force Base, where U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine joined the negotiations on Friday afternoon, hopes ran cautiously high. But all sides were reluctant to predict that an agreement might be at hand.

"We are reducing the differences," a senior White House official told CNN. "These are intense negotiations that are covering everything."

By "everything," the official said the two sides were discussing some of the more contentious issues in the peace process, including borders of a Palestinian state, sovereignty over Jerusalem, return of refugees and Israeli settlements.

Among the specifics on the table, sources told CNN, was a proposal giving the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and Muslim holy sites in east Jerusalem.

"We're at a very, very sensitive point," Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told Israel Army radio Thursday. "This is the first time there is the feeling that they (Palestinians) really want to get a deal. We want to see if that's possible."

The Palestinians' chief representative to Washington, Hasan Abdul Rahman, told CNN, "We've always wanted a deal. A deal depends on Israel."

In what the Israelis said was a signal to the Palestinians of flexibility, Ben-Ami said on Israeli radio that Israel must "keep a special connection with the Temple Mount" -- avoiding use of the word "sovereignty."

Peace deal could benefit Barak

The peace talks are expected to run until Saturday -- when a meeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton may take place -- but officials said that with only a month remaining before Clinton leaves office, they could be extended.

Back in the Middle East, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the talks, saying they should not take place before an election to replace current Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak resigned on December 10, forcing a special election to be held on February 6. Barak is running for re-election, saying he wanted the vote to be a mandate for his policies.

Barak is trailing his opponent, right-wing Likud party chairman Ariel Sharon, and analysts believe he has little or no chance of winning unless he does produce a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, who said earlier this week he would not challenge Barak unless the Israeli Knesset dissolves itself and holds a new general election, said that he believes the parliament will do so "sooner rather than later."

CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna, State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and Producer Elise Labott contributed to this story.

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Likud
Meretz Party (In Hebrew)
United Nations
  • Question of Palestine
U.S. State Department
  • Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
  • Middle East Peace Process
The EU and the Middle East Peace Process
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Palestinian National Authority
Israel Defense Forces
Palestine Red Crescent Society

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