JERUSALEM, (Islamweb & News Agencies)-Intifadha, uprising, against Israeli occupation continues in the West Bank in tit-for-tat attacks in which at least 11 people died- four Palestinians and seven Israelis. . The bloodshed has left the two sides further apart than ever in efforts to end 11 months of the intifadha and seek a peace settlement.Israeli warplanes, tanks and bulldozers wrecked Palestinian security buildings on Sunday. (Read photo caption below)
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat branded the strikes ''barbaric,'' while Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer referred to Arafat as ``a cruel enemy.''
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened an overnight security meeting with cabinet ministers and security officials to discuss the latest intifadha confrontations.
F-16 and F-15 jets left three Palestinian security headquarters in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in ruins in a pre-dawn bombardment. On Saturday two Palestinian Resistance entered an Israeli base in Gaza on Saturday and killed three occupation soldiers before they were shot dead.
Two other Palestinians died in the Gaza fighting. In two separate incidents, three members of an Israeli family and an Israeli merchant were shot dead by Palestinian Palestinian Resistance men on roads that straddle the West Bank and the Jewish state proper.
An armed group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction took responsibility for the two roadway shootings in the West Bank
Israeli helicopters fired seven missiles and destroyed a Palestinian police post in the town of Tulkarm.
ISRAELI TANKS ATTACK
Israeli tanks also wrecked three Palestinian security posts by shelling in the city of Ramallah, wounding seven people.The latest attacks lowered the prospect for proposed truce talks between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who had agreed last week to meet under German auspices.
Nearly 540 Palestinians and more than 150 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in late September after peace talks stalled.
INTIFADHA IRREVERSABLE
Arafat said the Israeli strikes would not deter the struggle for an independent Palestinian state.
``I repeat that the mountain will not be shaken by the wind,'' Arafat, in his green military uniform with a sub-machinegun slung over his shoulder, told reporters as he inspected rubble around a ruined security building in Gaza on Sunday.
In separate clashes, three Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy, were wounded when Palestinian resistance challenged an Israeli occupation army patrol near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Palestinians inspect a destroyed police station after the Israeli occupation army attacked the building in the West Bank town of Salfit, August 26,2001. Israel claimed its warplanes attacked Palestinian posts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip early on Sunday in retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and two settlers the previous day. REUTERS/ Abed Omar Qusini
- Aug 26 9:50 AM ET