Israelis martyr Pals leader, block Gaza main road

By: Ahmad Hammadi

QALQILIYA, West Bank: Israeli troops early Thursday martyred a local head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the town of Qalqiliya, northern West Bank.

31-year-old Mahmoud Shawer was martyred while Israeli soldiers were attempting to arrest him. Thousands attended his funeral procession in the West bank town of Qalqiliya.

In another development, the army re-blocked the main north-south road in the Gaza Strip following a rocket attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip that wounded three Jewish settlers.

Palestinians labeled the actions as a threat to United States peacemaking.

Separately, about a hundred International Solidarity Movement activists and Palestinians holding signs calling to 'End the Occupation' and 'Free Palestine' demonstrated Thursday in the West Bank town of Baka Al-Sharqiya against the construction of a separation fence between Israel and the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday that Israeli Minister for Defense Shaul Mofaz has played down the prospect during a cabinet meeting that any more cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be handed back to Palestinian control in the near future.

END