THE BATTLE FOR JERUSALEM BEGINS

""The battle for Jerusalem has begun," declared Bassem Naim, a Palestinian activist."

""The Israelis must understand that Palestinians can also shoot and kill," said a 25-year-old gunman armed with an M-16 assault rifle who would not give his name."

"We are ready to die for al-Aqsa," said Mohammed Jabari, a protester from the West Bank town of Hebron. "Israel is playing with fire when it touches al-Aqsa."

From FOXNEWS AS OF 2:30 EST Sat. 9.30.200

15 DEAD -- OVER 500 WOUNDED

http://foxnews.com/world/093000/mideast.sml

Palestinian Rioters Fire On Israeli Troops
As Riots Spread to West Bank, Gaza
Saturday, September 30, 2000

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Palestinian rock-throwers, and several gunmen, fought Israeli troops Saturday in what the Palestinians said was a religious war over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. Twelve Palestinians, including two teen-agers, were killed and 523 injured.

Adel Hana/AP

Saturday: A Palestinian lobs a burning Israeli flag near the entrance of the Netzarim Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Among those killed was a 12-year-old boy who was caught in the crossfire. The boy, Rami Aldura, and his father, were crouched behind a metal barrel, trying to seek cover and pleading for a cease-fire. The father held his hand protectively over the boy, who was screaming with fear, only to see his son fatally shot in the stomach.

It was the second day of deadly clashes in what has become the worst violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in four years. On Friday, six Palestinians were killed and close to 200 injured.

"The battle for Jerusalem has begun," declared Bassem Naim, a Palestinian activist.

Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged fire in two areas, near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza and south of the West Bank town of Nablus.

At the Netzarim junction, one man fired shots at an Israeli army outpost from behind a red truck. Soldiers returned fire, and several Palestinians took cover on the ground, covering their heads with their hands, their faces pressed on the asphalt. One Palestinian man screamed in pain when he was shot in the knee. Paramedics ran into the line of fire to drag him to safety.

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reported three dead — a 12-year-old boy, a Palestinian policeman and an ambulance driver. A fourth Palestinian, from the town of Khan Yunis, was comatose with a bullet wound to the head.

In the West Bank, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including a 14-year-old boy shot in the abdomen during a gun battle between a dozen masked gunmen and Israeli soldiers near Nablus. The gunmen crouched behind walls and olive trees as they aimed at the Israelis who took cover behind jeeps.

"The Israelis must understand that Palestinians can also shoot and kill," said a 25-year-old gunman armed with an M-16 assault rifle who would not give his name.

Adel Hana/AP

Saturday: Palestinians carry an injured man near the entrance to the Netzarim settlement in Gaza City.

Violence erupted across the West Bank, Gaza and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Huge plumes of black smoke from burning tires rose high above Palestinian towns, and streets were littered with rocks and overturned garbage trash bins.

In Hebron, rioters running out of rocks had them ferried to the scene in taxis. Helmeted Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated steel pellets and live rounds from behind jeeps and walls.

Palestinians say the trigger for the violence was a visit Thursday by Israel's hawkish opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to the disputed Jerusalem hilltop known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary. The Palestinians accused the Israeli government of having ignited a "religious war" because it did not stop Sharon from visiting the shrine.

In clashes at the compound Friday, six Palestinians were killed and close to 200 wounded. "We're going to teach them not to touch our holy place," said Khalil Natash, 21, a stonethrower in the West Bank town of Hebron, who carried a black flag of mourning for those killed. "We will burn the ground underneath the Israelis to stop them from touching our holy place."

The Temple Mount is built atop what Jews consider to be the ruins of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the second century A.D. The Wailing Wall, at the base of the hill, is said to be all that remains of the ancient temple.

To Muslims, Haram as-Sharif is the place from which Mohammed ascended to heaven, and after the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, is the third-holiest site in Islam.

Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Friday: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops in Jerusalem.

It was from the Temple Mount that Palestinian youths threw rocks down at Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall Friday after services ended at the al-Aqsa mosque atop the hill, prompting Israeli soldiers to storm the Mount and further fanning the riots.

"We are ready to die for al-Aqsa," said Mohammed Jabari, a protester from the West Bank town of Hebron. "Israel is playing with fire when it touches al-Aqsa."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to restore calm. He said Israel has been showing "maximum restraint," but would do what was necessary to protect its citizens and restore order. The violence erupted as Israelis marked Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Palestinian peace negotiator Nabil Shaath said Israeli security forces committed "premeditated murder" at the Jerusalem shrine Friday, accusing snipers of picking off protesters. The violence underscored Palestinian demands that Israel must withdraw from east Jerusalem, the sector the Palestinians claim as a future capital, Shaath said.

Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader in the West Bank, said he expected confrontations to get worse in the coming days.

"The way the Israelis are behaving now in the Palestinian territories and Israel's reluctance to express regret over what has been done at the mosque is encouraging the spread of the confrontations," he said.

Many Israelis felt the Palestinians were responsible. "Despite the fact that there is a peace process, they [the Palestinians] want to ruin everything," said Meirav Buchbut, 21, a bookkeeper from the town of Netanya. "There won't be peace. There will only be war."

Across the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, Palestinians observed a general strike and day of mourning Saturday. Shops were closed and children were sent home from school. Israel barred its citizens from entering the Palestinian-controlled areas to avoid further friction.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are hung up because of rival sovereignty claims to the shrine. Neither side wants the other to have full control. All U.S. compromise proposals have been rejected so far by the negotiators.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report