BBC radio
September 16, 2001

Palestinians accuse Israel of escalating the violence Israeli tanks with helicopter support have thrust into the centre of the Palestinian-ruled town of Ramallah in the West Bank, killing a member of the Palestinian security forces and wounding 15 others in several hours of fighting.

Ali Khader Jaber, 26, was shot in the stomach when he went out on to the roof of his house after hearing shooting, Palestinian hospital sources said.

Another Palestinian man -- an ambulance driver -- was killed by shrapnel earlier in the night as he tried to transport people away from clashes in the town of Bethlehem.

The Israeli army has not commented on events in Ramallah, although Israel says it has launched a string of such incursions into Palestinians self-rule areas following attacks on Israelis.

Some tanks stopped only a few metres from the Palestinian Legislative Council building, witnesses said.

Helicopters continued to swoop overhead as the tanks rolled back to their positions outside Ramallah, spraying bullets from the air, the witnesses said.

Loudspeakers in local mosques called on residents to go into the streets to resist the Israeli incursion.

Escalation

The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of using events in the US as an excuse to impose a military solution on their intifada, or uprising, against Israel's occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ceasefire talks which had been due on Sunday have been vetoed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who blames continuing violence on the Palestinians.

He says all attacks must cease before further negotiation on a truce.

BBC correspondent Paul Wood says all of this is a blow to US diplomatic efforts to neutralise the Palestinian issue in order to build a wide coalition including Arab states for his global war on terrorism.

Earlier on Saturday, a Palestinian youth was killed and several other Palestinians injured in a day of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Two helicopter gunships fired at least eight missiles into a military intelligence post in Gaza City, and also hit a security position near the Nusseirat refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.

At the same time, in the southern border town of Rafah, missiles were used to destroy a Palestinian police station.

Shortly after the aerial attack appeared to finish, clashes broke out near the southern refugee camp town of Khan Younis.

A 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Imad Zorob, was shot dead when a group of Palestinian teenagers went to he edge of the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim after the funeral of two men killed by Israel tank fire on Friday.