HEBRON, West Bank (Islamweb & Newsk Agencies) - Fresh fighting has left five more Palestinians killed in Hebron, Al-Khalil as the United States directed a rare public rebuke at Ariel Sharon on Friday after the Israeli prime minister warned Washington not to appease Arab states.Sharon's staff issued conciliatory statements after a U.S. spokesman condemned comments in which the Israeli leader drew a comparison with the appeasement of the Nazis in 1938.
Israeli occupation tanks and troops thrust into a Palestinian area of the West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Khalil on Friday, seizing strategic positions in a fierce gun battle. (Read photo caption below)
The incursion into the Abu Sneineh neighborhood overlooking a Jewish settlement in the predominently Palestinian city came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to take ``all necessary measures'' to protect internationally illegal settlers and occupation soldiers.
The White House on Friday slammed Sharon's comments as ''unacceptable.''
President Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told reporters the U.S. view had been communicated to Sharon through the U.S. Embassy in Israel and the National Security Council.
A senior Israeli official said Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sharon on Thursday night and received the prime minister's assurance that ``no offence was intended.''
TRUCE GOES UP IN SMOKE
Later on Friday, Palestinian Resistance men shot dead an Israeli motorist and wounded another in a shooting attack in the West Bank, a Jewish settler spokesman said.
A faxed statement released by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for a shooting on Thursday at the main bus station of the central Israeli town of Afula that killed three Israelis.
In the West Bank, Palestinian security officials told Reuters that Israeli special occupation units cordoned off the town of Azzoun east of Qalqilya and detained Farid Abdel Aziz Hussein, 38, a senior Palestinian intelligence officer. In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation tanks briefly penetrated a Palestinian-ruled area of Rafah some 700 yards under cover of heavy fire, a Palestinian security source said.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinian youths hurl rocks at Israeli border police during clashes in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, October 5, 2001. Israeli tanks and troops thrust into a Palestinian area of the West Bank city of Hebron, seizing strategic positions and killing five Palestinians in a gun battle. (Magnus Johansson/Reuters)