Sunday April 8 1:15 PM ET
Mideast Violence Mars Passover And Palm Sunday

By Deborah Camiel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Fresh violence between Palestinians and Israelis marred the Jewish Passover holiday and Christian Palm Sunday despite seasonal messages of goodwill conveyed over the echo of gunfire. An 18-month-old girl was in critical condition after Israeli soldiers confronting stone-throwing Palestinian youths shot her in the head with a rubber-coated metal bullet as her family walked home through the village of Al-Khader, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said.

The baby's eight-year-old brother was shot in the hand during the clash in the Israeli-controlled part of Al-Khader, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, an ambulance medic said. He said the baby had been shot from about 10 meters (yards).

An army spokeswoman said she was checking the report.

More than six months of violence from a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation intensified elsewhere as fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen flared near the West Bank village of Beitunia, near Ramallah.

At least 369 Palestinians, 71 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that erupted in late September.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops fired heavy machineguns and tank shells at a checkpoint of the Palestinian Force-17 security force. The sources said one Force-17 man was wounded.

The army spokeswoman said Israeli troops had responded with tank fire after Palestinians opened fire on an army camp and two outposts near Beitunia.

Israelis Defuse Pipe Bomb

She added that army sappers had safely defused a pipe bomb planted near a checkpoint in the Jewish part of the divided city of Hebron in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with Passover holiday greetings for the Jewish people on Saturday, Israeli Radio said.

Sharon's office said his response to Arafat's goodwill call on the eve of Passover, commemorating the Israelites' biblical exodus from Egypt, was guarded and Sharon reiterated his demand that violence stop before peace talks restart.

Christians in the region celebrated Palm Sunday, marking the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem at the start of Easter week.

Arafat arrived in Egypt late on Saturday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa told reporters after the meeting in Cairo that the presidents discussed Israel's ''provocative measures'' toward Palestinians.

Arafat left Egypt shortly after meeting Mubarak and was heading to Amman on his way back to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, three masked men shot dead an Israeli Arab in the town of Tulkarm before fleeing, witnesses said. Hospital officials pronounced 39-year-old Ma'moun Freij dead on arrival. Branding Freij a collaborator, Arafat's Fatah faction claimed responsibility for the death in a statement.

After the Mubarak-Arafat meeting, Moussa criticized Israel's measures to contain the Palestinian Intifada -- uprising -- against Israeli occupation, describing them as a ''return to square one.''

Moussa Says Israel Wants Palestinian ``Surrender''

He highlighted Israel's blockade of Palestinian territories, the Jewish state's settlement policy and killings of key Palestinian figures. He said Israel was seeking a Palestinian ``surrender'' which Arabs could not accept.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and has played an active role in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke by telephone with Mubarak on Saturday night about the unrest in the West Bank and Gaza, captured by Israel in a 1967 Middle East war.

``President Mubarak told Peres despite the difficult situation it was forbidden to lose hope for peace and the two sides must make every effort to calm in the territories and the renewal of peacemaking,'' Peres's office said.

A Palestinian official said Arafat also spoke with Peres, expressing hope that stalled peace talks would resume.

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