End of truce which lasted less than a morning

Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops have exchanged fire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ending a tentative ceasefire that lasted barely half a day and threatening hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process.

Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops have exchanged fire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ending a tentative ceasefire that lasted barely half a day and threatening hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process.

Hospital officials in Gaza said one man was killed and 10 were seriouusly wounded in the firefight at an Israeli army outpost near the isolated settlement of Netzarim. In the West Bank town of Nablus, gunmen returning from a funeral fired on a tiny Israeli enclave, drawing return fire.

Israel and the Palestinians had declared a ceasefire this morning, according to an Israeli officer, bringing a tentative end to five days of bloodshed that threatened to wreck the fragile peace process there.

Colonel Marcel Aviv, an Israeli officer in the West Bank, told Israeli radio that quiet now reigned and a Palestinian source confirmed the truce would come into effect immediately.

Rioting in the Israeli-Arab sector, in towns and neighbourhoods where resentment against discrimination, poverty and unemployment has long festered, has taken at least nine lives.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has announced the establishment of a special Cabinet-level committee to examine problems in the Arab sector. The epicenter of the violence, however, has been in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians took to the streets last week after Ariel Sharon, the leader of the hard-line Likud opposition party, visited a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews.

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli positions throughout the disputed areas. Israelis responded with heavy fire, and in some cases used helicopter gunships to disperse Palestinian assailants. Israeli tanks rolled within meters of Palestinian neighborhoods.

Barak kept in touch with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat throughout the five days of violence. Pressed by U.S. mediators, the two leaders agreed to meet in Paris.

The sides had broken new ground in peace talks in recent months, but the negotiations had foundered over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, built atop the ruins of the ancient Jewish temples. Sharon was seeking to protest about Barak's proposals to share sovereignty over the site when he visited last Thursday, accompanied by thousands of police. Palestinians said his visit was aimed at consolidating Israeli hegemony over the site.

At the request of the Palestinians, the U.N. Security Council has met in emergency consultations to discuss the wave of violence between Israel and Palestinians that has killed more than 50 people and threatened the Middle East peace process.

The council was drafting a consensus text to be adopted at a formal open meeting condemning the violence and calls for both sides to use restraint and avoid future "provocative actions" that could inflame the situation.

The draft statement also condemns the "excessive use of force" being used, but diplomats said the United States was opposed to the language and was seeking to change it. It was unclear whether the dispute would block the nonbinding statement from being adopted altogether.

Palestinian envoy Nasser Al-Kidwa had called for the council meeting, urging ambassadors to intervene to put an end to the fighting and salvage Mideast peace talks. As a first step, he said, the council should call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Jerusalem's holiest site and from the vicinity of other Palestinian cities, as well as an investigation of events of the last few days.

"We are not looking only for condemnation," Al-Kidwa said as ambassadors arrived for the council meeting. "Maybe more importantly, we are looking for a call, for a demand by the council for Israeli cessation of the violent action and the violent aggression against Palestinian people."

Israel's U.N. ambassador, Yehuda Lancry, said Security Council intervention now would not be welcome.

"Therefore we do encourage our Palestinian partners to put an end to the violence, to disassociate themselves from unfruitful diplomatic steps and to get back to the final round of these negotiations," Lancry said.

In an initial letter to the council on Friday, the Palestinians said opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit Thursday to the ancient mosques at Jerusalem's holiest site provoked the wave of rioting. Israel say the unrest was orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority in hopes of extracting more concessions in peace negotiations.

Israel has "used excessive lethal force," against Palestinian civilians, deploying snipers and tanks and used high-velocity ammunition as well as anti-tank missiles, rockets, grenades and helicopter gunships, the Palestinians charged.

The Palestinians accused Israel of "grave breaches" of the 1949 Geneva Convention that calls for the protection of civilians in war and said Israeli soldiers should be held accountable.

The Palestinians said Israel's actions were "starkly reminiscent" of a confrontation 10 years ago that spurred a council resolution calling for Israel "to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations" under the 1949 Geneva Convention.

In the Oct. 8, 1990 incident, Israeli forces responded to rock throwing from the holiest site in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, by storming the area, killing 17 Palestinian civilians.

The shrine is sacred to Jews as the site of the first and second temples. It is also contains the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques.

Mideast peace talks broke down over the final status of Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all of east Jerusalem, which includes the holy sites. They have said that at most they would allow symbolic Islamic sovereignty over Haram as-Sharif.

Israel has suggested it is ready to consider less than full Israeli sovereignty, but has ruled out Palestinian or Islamic control.