Military

DATE=10/28/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS (L)

NUMBER=2-268560

BYLINE=JENNY BADNER

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///Editors Please update the latest casualty figures in the intro///

INTRO: Israeli-Palestinian clashes broke out Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say as many as 50 people were wounded in the fighting. The violence followed the funerals for some of the four people killed in the latest upsurge of violence. Jenny Badner reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: Israeli soldiers and Palestinian rock-throwers clashed as the violence entered its second month.

Clashes broke out following a mass funeral procession in the Gaza Strip.

At the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian police stepped in and restrained the protesters. During most of the one month of clashes, Palestinian authorities have only rarely intervened.

There were also reports of clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron.

More than 135 people, almost all of them Palestinian, have been killed in the violence of the past month.

On Saturday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's faction, Fatah, called on Palestinians in a statement to intensify their uprising against Israel.

///Opt/// The body of an Israeli was found shot and burned near the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli army says it is investigating the death and emphasizes it may be a criminal incident unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian clashes. ///end opt///

Late Friday night, an Israel helicopter and tanks fired a missile and two shells in the West Bank village of Beit Jala.

The army says it was responding to the ongoing shooting by Palestinian gunmen into the nearby Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. There were no reports of injuries.

The Israeli Army expects the violence to continue through the upcoming year.

///Rest Opt///Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, is attempting to form a national emergency government because of the unrest.

Mr. Barak has been holding negotiations with opposition Likud leader, Ariel Sharon in an attempt to expand the government.

It was Mr. Sharon who sparked the beginning of the violence when he visited a sensitive site in Jerusalem that is holy to Muslims and Jews.

The Israeli parliament reconvenes this coming week and Mr. Barak could face motions to bring down the government and hold early elections. (SIGNED)

NEB/JB/DW/PLM