JERUSALEM (Islamweb & Agencies) - Palestinian Resistance men fought Israeli occupation soldiers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip in fresh outbursts of intifadha confrontations that indicated a U.S.-brokered cease-fire was close to collapse on Saturday.(Read photo caption below).

The predominantly Palestinian West Bank town of Hebron, Al-Khalil scene of one of the fiercest gunbattles since the Palestinian intifadha (uprising) against Israeli occupation began, was quiet late on Friday except for bursts of automatic weapons fired in the air by Palestinian Resistance men at a late night anti-Israel rally.

Two Palestinians, one a woman, were moderately to seriously wounded in the gunbattle, in which Israeli tanks fired at positions held by President Yasser Arafat's security Force-17. Scores more were lightly hurt or suffered from shock.

In other intifadha confrontations late on Friday, the Israeli occupation army reported its soldiers came under Palestinian fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, and in the Gaza Strip where the occupation army said anti-tank grenades were fired.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the incidents, which underscored the failure of a month-old truce brokered by the United States to end almost 10 months of uprising against Israeli occupation in which more than 600 people have died.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who returned home from a two-day visit to Italy, told reporters he sent his son, Omri, to meet Arafat on Thursday on the advice of security officials.

The younger Sharon has met Arafat at least twice on his father's behalf and they reportedly have a warm relationship.

U.S. CALLS FOR RESTRAINT BY ISRAEL, PALESTINIANS

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Sharon in a phone call on Thursday evening to do his utmost to prevent a deterioration of the situation.Two Palestinian Resistance men were killed on Friday. One was shot dead while Israeli occupation soldiers were defusing a roadside bomb and the other died in a mysterious car blast the Islamic Resistance group Hamas blamed on Israel.

The latest deaths brought the toll to at least 21 Palestinians, including a Palestinian bomber, and 12 Israelis killed since the truce was supposed to have taken effect in mid-June.

PHOTO CAPTION:

Israeli occupation soldiers stand near the body of a Palestinian man who was killed by Israeli fire near the Jewish settlement of Aley Sinai in the occupied Gaza Strip July 13, 2001. A Palestinian attack that killed a Jewish settler triggered heavy nighttime gunbattles in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Khalil that raged on throughout the morning and into the afternoon. (Tsafrir Abayov/Reuters)