Intifada remembered with call to `keep gun on Israel’

JERUSALEM -- Marking the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the intifada, Hamas' spokesman in Amman Saturday called on Palestinians to keep "the gun directed towards the Zionist enemy."

"Hamas appeals to all Palestinian forces inside the territories and in the diaspora to unite their ranks in confronting the [Israeli] enemy," said a statement signed by spokesman Ibrahim Ghosheh.

He also urged Palestinians to "stand firmly against all conspiracies targeting the land of Palestine, all of Palestine, and Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem," and for "eliminating collaborators" with Israel.

In Hebron Saturday, about 500 activists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine burned an IDF soldier in effigy and also torched some Israeli and U.S. flags.

The protesters at the Islamic University in Hebron also held up photos of Palestinian prisoners and of the movement's leader, George Habash, who lives in Damascus.

Speakers rejected Israel's proposed pullback in the West Bank and called for continued struggle against Israel.

Palestinians said that at least 30 Arabs were wounded in clashes with the IDF in Hebron and Rafiah on Friday of last week.

Other sources said that five people were hurt in the unrest in Rafiah. The violence erupted as hundreds of Palestinians threw stones and firebombs at an IDF outpost, charging that the soldiers had taken some of their land.

Palestinian sources claimed that soldiers fired live ammunition at the protesters and that a 3-year-old boy and an Associated Press cameraman were among the wounded. The cameraman was shot in the hand.

The IDF spokesman said that soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators after Palestinian police failed to stop the protests. The spokesman also said that IDF officials would meet with Palestinians in the coming days to discuss the land issue in Rafiah.