More killings in Middle East

An Israeli tank enforcing the blockade near Bethlehem

At least three Palestinians have reportedly been shot dead by Israel troops during renewed clashes in the Middle East.

The deaths follow Israel's re-imposition of blockades on Palestinian towns in the West Bank and Gaza after the deaths of four Israelis and four Palestinians on Monday.

The important thing is all most of these types of operation are committed with the authorisation of Yasser Arafat

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer

Ra'id Fahmi Shaqfah, 19, died and another 30 people were wounded after Israeli soldiers opened fire in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.

Sabir Idris Burayj, 15, was shot and killed earlier in Al-Birah on the West Bank and Jamal Ibrahim Ulaywan, 34, died after inhaling tear gas at an Israeli roadblock at the entrance to Sinjil.

Palestinian radio reported that a further two people had been killed. It said a boy of 13 was shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza and a 50-year-old man was killed by stone-throwing settlers near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Strong action

The Israeli commander in the West Bank, Major General Yitzhak Eitan, said the closure orders would be more stringent than in the past with only food and medicine permitted to enter or leave the blockaded areas.

However, the BBC Jerusalem correspondent Paul Adams reports that closure is not as absolute as might be expected.

At several checkpoints Palestinians found that little had actually changed, and at one, Jewish settlers took matters into their own hands and blocked Palestinian cars themselves.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has been meeting President Bill Clinton in the United States, accused the Palestinian leadership of encouraging violence and calling for holy war against Israel. He is to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on his return.

Israeli settlers have also been mourning their dead

He promised strong action against those responsible for attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Israeli officials have said that they believe radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad was behind an ambush on Monday in the West Bank that killed three.

The officials accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of giving the attacks a green light.

"All the indications we have is that this attack was carried out by people from the Islamic Jihad. But the important thing is all most of these types of operation are committed with the authorisation of Yasser Arafat," said Communications Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who is also acting prime minister in the absence of Mr Barak.

Ambush

The clampdown is a return to the widespread sanctions against Palestinians that Israel lifted in mid-October after committing itself to a ceasefire accord brokered by the US at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

It follows an attack in which Palestinian gunmen fired on a convoy of Jewish settlers under army escort in the West Bank, killing one settler and two soldiers.

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An Israeli truck driver was shot dead in a separate incident in Gaza.

Three Palestinians were also killed on Monday - two teenagers shot by Israeli troops in Gaza and a policeman killed in clashes in the West Bank.

A Palestinian teenager critically wounded during clashes on Saturday also died.

Correspondents say the day's violence confirms an apparent change of tactics by the Palestinians, who are reported to be carrying out more ambushes of Israeli settlers and soldiers.

This coincides with a call by Yasser Arafat's Fatah party for the Palestinians to drive out Israelis from occupied land by Wednesday.

Hamas meeting

This date - 15 November - marks the 12-year anniversary of a symbolic Palestinian statehood declaration.

Mr Arafat has held direct talks with the militant Hamas movement in what is seen by observers as part of his efforts to unify Palestinian political and military policy towards Israel.

Hamas, the leading opposition movement to Mr Arafat in the Palestinian territories, has called for a intensification of the Palestinian intifada and attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers.