: UNCONFIRMED--USUAL CAVEATS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli

army threatened on Monday to surround

the West Bank town of Beit Jala near

Jerusalem to stop gunmen there from

firing at the Jewish settlement of Gilo.

``If the danger against the residents of Gilo continues we will

take further steps and today already we will surround Beit Jala,''

army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz told Israel Radio.

Israel built houses in Gilo, situated between Bethlehem and

Jerusalem, after occupying land there during the 1967 Middle

East war.

Police said 12 Israeli apartment buildings had been raked by

gunfire from Beit Jala village near Bethlehem. No one was hurt.

Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire with missiles on Beit Jala

late Sunday and a tank fired a warning shell at an open field

near the town Friday.

Clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army continued

sporadically elsewhere during Sunday night and into Monday.

At least 127 people, nearly all of them Palestinians, have died in

more than three weeks of violence, according to checks made

by Reuters.

Near the Gush Katif Jewish settlement in the mostly

Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip, dozens of children threw stones at

an army base, and soldiers opened fire, critically wounding a

13-year-old boy.

Hospital sources said the boy was hit in the

head by a rubber-coated metal bullet.

Colonel Raanan Gissin, an army spokesman,

said the army had decided to impose a ``partial

closure'' around Beit Jala to prevent armed

militias of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's

Fatah faction from entering.

``In the past few days we have seen this has been a pattern.

They've been infiltrating into the area at night, of course away

from television cameras, and start the shooting immediately with

darkness,'' Gissin said.

He said the army would deploy roadblocks and forces to

enforce the partial closure.

The commander of Israeli forces in the Bethlehem area said

Sunday that if the attacks did not stop, the army would respond

more harshly, ultimately destroying homes and vehicles.

``Every house from which there will be firing will simply be

destroyed. Every vehicle from which there will be firing will be

destroyed,'' Colonel Marcel Aviv told Israel Radio.

The Palestinians have accused the Israeli army of using

excessive force.