Efforts to shore up truce continue in Mideast

PLO leader Yasser Arafat, right, walks with U.S. envoy Williams Burns before their meeting Saturday

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Talks on how to implement a U.S.-brokered truce agreement between Palestinians and Israelis continued over the weekend against a backdrop of violence in the region.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man as he and two others tried to cross from Gaza to Israel, the Israeli Army said Saturday.

The two others were taken into custody.

In Gaza, the fundamentalist Islamic group Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded a third, held a symbolic funeral for a 27-year-old activist in the group's military wing whom Hamas said was the bomber.

Israeli officials said the soldiers were hit when patrolling a road in northern Gaza. Palestinians reportedly signaled to the troops that a jeep bearing Israeli license plates was stuck and needed assistance. The vehicle exploded as the soldiers pulled alongside it.

Israeli bulldozers in two Gaza locations demolished several Palestinian houses and cleared farmland, an action the Israeli army said was necessary to prevent repeat Palestinian attacks.

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Despite the violence, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat told reporters in his West Bank headquarters that the tenuous U.S.-brokered cease-fire can work.

"It is possible to restore the trust between our two people and move back toward a real political settlement," he said.

Arafat met Saturday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who is in the region to help with the implementation of the truce agreement brokered by the head of the CIA, George Tenet.

"I also stressed the importance the American administration attaches to both sides for fulfilling their obligations under the security work plan put together by George Tenet," Burns said.

"I look forward to continuing our discussions with the Palestinians and with the Israelis and also to staying in very close touch with others in the international community -- the European Union, the U.N. secretary-general, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and others," said Burns.

Top European foreign policy official Javier Solana has also been meeting with both sides in the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is preparing to undertake a similar mission on behalf of U.S. President George W. Bush next week. Powell said the first priority is for the level of violence to drop sharply and that he hopes to set a timetable for subsequent political moves.

Armed Palestinian Islamic Jihad activists swear to continue their attacks against Israeli targets during a Friday rally.

Burns met Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said on Israeli television Saturday that a combination of military and political efforts was necessary to forge a lasting peace.

"The threat of military action and, where necessary, of military action, will bring the other side to engage in a political process," Sharon said.

Sharon departs Sunday for Washington, where he will meet with Bush. His trip also includes a stop in London to discuss the Mideast conflict with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Jewish settlers, pushing Sharon to unleash Israel's military might, tried to attack Palestinian vehicles. They were contained by Israeli police and troops. Elsewhere, settlers went on a rampage, burning fields in Palestinian villages near where settlers have been killed by Palestinian gunmen. But other views held by some Israelis were on display in Tel Aviv, where marchers in a gay pride parade held placards that read, "No pride in occupation."