The Palestinian Authority called for the United States to help mediate a new ceasefire between Islamic groups and Israel and said the authority will crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad only if Israel halts military actions. "We want truce between the whole Palestinian Authority and Israel, that Israel commit itself to as much as we do," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters. "The Palestinian leadership reiterates it is prepared to impose law and order...and punish all violators, but this can't be achieved while Israel pursues its war against the Palestinian Authority and its civil and security institutions," Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said. "The United States must play now an active role and send empowered monitors immediately and intervene to prevent the collapse of the truce," said Rabbo. Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces on Saturday closed three tunnels used to smuggle weapons and drugs from Egypt to the Gaza Strip as part of a security plan approved after a bomb attack in Jerusalem, a security official said. A senior Hamas official said his group was ready to discuss a new truce despite Israel's killing of a senior political leader that had led to the collapse of an earlier ceasefire. "I think in political work it is possible to talk about a political step... The leadership of the movement will study any political step presented," Hamas's Lebanon head Usama Hamdan said. Rubber-covered bullets wounded sixteen Palestinian boys and another was hit by a live round during clashes Saturday with Israeli troops in Nablus, Palestinian hospital sources said. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he would visit the Middle East next month to "touch base" with officials in several Arab nations amid renewed US concerns about Israel-Palestinian peace efforts. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A Palestinian boy throws stones at an Israeli tank in the West Bank city of Jenin. (AFP/SAIF DAHLAH)