More Violence Erupts in Mideast

JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian rock-throwers clashed Friday with Israeli troops across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. In separate marches, thousands of Islamic militants clamored for more suicide attacks in Israel, chanting ``We want a big bomb.''

The renewed violence came after a few days of relative calm and was expected to hamper President Clinton's efforts to revive peace talks.

Israel has said it will not resume negotiations unless quiet is restored. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction has said it will keep encouraging confrontations as a way of extracting concessions from Israel in the negotiations.

Palestinian activists declared Friday a ``day of rage,'' and asked Palestinian worshippers to march from mosques to Israeli checkpoints after noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week.

Across the West Bank, Israeli troops fired live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets at Palestinian rock-throwers. Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the towns of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya, including a 15-year-old. Twenty-five other Palestinians were injured, four of them seriously, doctors said.

The deaths bring to 131 the number of people killed - most of them Palestinians - in 30 days of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. More than 5,000 Palestinians have been injured, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

At a traffic circle north of the West Bank town of Ramallah, acrid smoke from a car burned by the crowd rose into the air as Israeli troops took aim at rock-throwers from behind a line of jeeps.

In the West Bank town of Nablus, about 2,000 supporters of the Islamic militant group Hamas marched through town chanting ``We want a big bomb.''

``The only way to respond to Israeli attacks is through military operations,'' said Salah Darwazeh, a Hamas leader in Nablus, referring to suicide bombings carried out in recent years by the Hamas military wing, Izzedine al Qassam.

In the Gaza refugee camp of Jebaliya, more than 10,000 Hamas supporters attended a rally led by several dozen masked men wearing white T-shirts reading ``The martyrs of al Qassam.'' One of the men wore a vest with pockets filled with what was meant to resemble bombs and sticks of explosives.

Israel has been on high alert for new suicide attacks since several dozen Islamic militants were released from Palestinian jails two weeks ago. On Thursday, a 24-year-old kindergarten janitor rode his bicycle to an Israeli army post in Gaza and detonated explosives strapped to his back, killing himself and injuring a soldier.

In response, Israeli forces destroyed a house overlooking the base and uprooted trees that gave cover to Palestinian attackers.

Israeli security officials warned of an escalation of the conflict. ``The operators are out there, at large,'' said army spokesman Col. Raanan Gissin.

In Jerusalem, Israel barred Palestinian men under 35 from praying at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Haram as-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, a hill known to Jews as the Temple Mount and holy to both religions. Police said they imposed the restrictions to prevent possible clashes after prayers.

Worshippers dispersed quietly after planting a Palestinian flag on one of the two mosques in the compound. A visit to the site by Israel's hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon triggered the Israeli-Palestinian fighting Sept. 28. The Temple Mount is the site of the biblical Jewish Temple, the holiest shrine of Judaism.

In the Jewish West Bank settlement of Efrat, the main synagogue was vandalized overnight, and settlers said they suspected Palestinian intruders. The synagogue was flooded - the vandals had turned on water hoses - and swastikas were spray-painted on the walls along with slogans in Arabic and Hebrew.

Efrat Mayor Eitan Golan said security at the settlement, located between Jerusalem and Hebron, must be improved. ``Today they spray paint. Tomorrow they could spray gunfire,'' he said.

Clinton, meanwhile, called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak late Thursday to discuss the situation, the White House said. Clinton has invited Barak and Arafat to separate talks in Washington.

Barak and Sharon worked on forging a broad coalition that could salvage Barak's minority government. Barak needs such a coalition to stay in power, while Sharon is seeking a prime political role and a say in security affairs.

Sharon raised harsh conditions, saying his party will never accept surrendering control over any area of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, or giving the West Bank's strategic Jordan Valley to the Palestinians. Barak turned down Sharon's conditions.