Fatah urges caution on gunmen

The Fatah faction of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has urged gunmen not to fire at Israeli army posts and settlements from populated Palestinian areas.

Leaflets were circulated after the death of an eighteen-year old Palestinian in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla on Tuesday night when an Israeli shell hit his house.

The Israeli army said it had opened fire on Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jalla -- from where the Jewish settlement of Gilo is often targetted.

The mayor of the nearby town of Beit Sahur told the BBC that people there were complaining that their lives were endangered and houses destroyed.

The mayor, Fuad Kaukali, said despite sympathy for the gunmen's cause, there were other ways of striking at Israel which would not harm people.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service