A PALESTINIAN man, Mr Abde Halawi, was shot dead, and three Palestinians were injured last night north-east of Jerusalem, When an Israeli army undercover unit clashed with local residents in the Arab village of Hizmeh.
According to initial reports, members of the unit entered the village to arrest a Palestinian they had been seeking, were surrounded by villagers and opened fire. One of those injured, however, was reportedly wounded when hit with a pistol butt.
Angry protests continued in the village, which is in territory still under Israeli control, for several hours after the incident. The Israeli army sent reinforcements to the scene, and used tear-gas in trying to disperse the villagers.
The clash came at an extremely delicate moment in Israeli-Palestinian relations, with tensions raised by Israeli plans to build a 6,500-unit Jewish neighbourhood at Har Homa, on the south-eastern edge of Jerusalem, territory captured from Jordan in 1967.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, is today set to give the formal green light for the project, despite Palestinian objections, US criticism and warnings from his own security services.
Israeli officials made strenuous efforts to placate the Palestinian leadership over the Hizmeh incident last night, promising a full internal investigation.
The Har Homa controversy contains echoes of the last major round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September. At that time Mr Netanyahu's decision to open a second entrance at an archaeological tunnel in the Old City of Jerusalem prompted gun-battles that left 70 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers dead. Then, as now, the Shin Bet security service warned him of the likely consequences. Then, as now, he was adamant that Israel would not defer to Palestinian sensitivities where, Jerusalem was concerned.
About 200 Palestinians, led by the senior PLO official in Jerusalem, Mr Faisal al-Husseini, marched the short distance from Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem to the proposed construction site yesterday. They protested against what they said, was a deliberate Israeli strategy of establishing, Jewish neighbourhoods between east Jerusalem and the West Bank, thus weakening Palestinians claims to partial control of the city.
Mr Husseini accused Mr Netanyahu of playing with fire. "There will be an explosion," he warned.
But the Israeli prime minister advising the Palestinians against any "inappropriate" reactions to the project, insisted that "we will build in all of Jerusalem".
However, he tried to sweeten the pill by pledging to build for Arabs in the city as well. The Israeli government is understood to be ready to approve the construction of 3,000 units for Palestinian residents at 12 sites.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
. The deranged Palestinian gunman who killed himself after shooting people on the 86th floor of the Empire State building in New York on Sunday was carrying documents indicating that his motivation was partly political. Two letters found on Ali Hassan Abu Kamal (69), an English professor from Gaza City, showed he had identified the Americans, the British, the French and "the Zionists" as "enemies" the mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday.