Report: Arafat ready to accept Clinton plan

Israel says Palestinian deaths a mistake

Arafat rejected Clinton's plan at the Camp David summit in July 2000

NABLUS, West Bank (CNN) -- At the end of a week in which Palestinians killed 31 Israelis in terror attacks, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told a newspaper he was ready to accept a proposal first made by U.S. President Bill Clinton as a framework for a Mideast peace settlement.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces mistakenly fired at a crowd with tank shells Friday, killing four Palestinians, including three children, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Clinton's plan offered Palestinians control of most, but not all of the territory taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and called for Palestinians to scale back their demand for the right of return of refugees, a move Palestinian officials said earlier this week they were willing to make. (Full story)

Arafat also told Jerusalem daily Ha'aretz that "foreign forces" were exploiting hopeless Palestinians, persuading them to carry out suicide attacks against Israelis. He said two families of suicide bombers from Jenin were paid $30,000 each. (Full story)

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In Tel Aviv, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted to give the IDF the green light to re-enter towns and villages it occupied during Operation Defensive Shield -- Israel's campaign to eliminate what it said was a terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank -- and stay as long as necessary, government sources said.

Israeli troops currently ring most West Bank towns, and the Israeli Defense Ministry said troops would go wherever they need to go and stay as long as needed to dismantle the infrastructure sending suicide bombers into Israel.

In the Israeli military mistake, troops fired two tank shells to deter a crowd from approaching the Israeli force after encountering a group violating a curfew, the IDF said in a statement.

"As a result of the shooting, three Palestinians were killed," the IDF said. "An initial inquiry indicates that the force erred in its action."

The dead were identified by hospital sources as Ahmed Rizawi, 9, his brother, Jamil Rizawi, 12, Sujod Adawi, 7, and Mustafa Shida, 52.

The IDF said 10 people were wounded in the Jenin incident. Palestinian sources said the Palestinians believed that the Israeli curfew on the area had been lifted, and that two dozen were hurt.

A fifth Palestinian, a 13-year-old, was killed earlier during an Israeli sweep of the area early Friday morning, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

The Jenin incident came after Israeli tanks and troops went into Nablus Friday morning. Earlier, a Palestinian gunman invaded a Jewish settlement south of Nablus Thursday night, killing five people, including a mother and her three children.

Israeli authorities said the gunman went into the home of Rachel Shabbo and opened fire on the family, killing her and three of her sons, Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5. He then began firing wildly in all directions, killing Yosef Tuwito, a security officer at the settlement.

An IDF paramilitary force stormed the house, killing one infiltrator, the army said.

It was unclear who was behind the terror attack. Israel Radio reported that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed the attack, but earlier the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took responsibility.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has carried out numerous attacks against military targets and civilians in Israel and in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. In March 2002, the U.S. State Department designated it as a foreign terrorist organization. (Timeline: Terror bombings)

Paramedics evacuate an Israeli soldier Thursday after a Palestinian gunman wounded him in the Itamar settlement.

The PFLP is a Palestinian militant group that has committed numerous international terrorist attacks and has conducted attacks against Israeli or moderate Arab targets, according to the U.S. State Department. It claimed responsibility for the killing of hard-line Israeli Cabinet member Rechavam Ze'evi last October that triggered a fresh wave of violence in the region.

CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman contributed to this report