2016-07-27

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt, Oct. 17 (AP)--Israel's prime minister and the leader of the Palestinians agreed Tuesday to take ``immediate concrete measures'' to end violence in the Middle East, concluding a two-day emergency summit called to stop ongoing clashes that have killed more than 100 people and shattered prospects for a full Middle East peace agreement.

President Clinton announced the agreement and said the Israelis and Palestinians had agreed to consult with the United States within the next two weeks ``about how to move forward.''

Clinton called the participants in the summit together to hear his statement, but they said nothing before dispersing after more than 14 hours of talks.

``Both sides have agreed to issue public statements unequivocally calling for an end of violence,'' Clinton said. ``They also agreed to take immediate concrete measures to end the current confrontation, eliminate points of friction, ensure an end to violence and incitement, maintain calm and prevent reoccurrence of recent events.''

Clinton said both sides agreed to ``act immediately to return the situation to that which existed before the current crisis.''

The statement came as a dramatic closure to a conference that appeared hours earlier to end without any accord, or any steps to bring an end to the unrest that has shaken the region.

Meahwhile, the violence continued Tuesday.

Thousands of Palestinians chanting ``revenge, revenge'' on Tuesday laid to rest a 15-year-old boy shot by Israeli troops, and a Palestinian farmer was killed in what Arab witnesses said was a shooting attack by Jewish settlers.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians settler threw stones and firebombs at an Israeli border crossing, drawing return fire that injured 10 demonstrators, including one who was in serious condition.

In all, more than 100 people have been killed in 20 days of clashes, the vast majority Palestinians.

About 150 Palestinians from the West Bank village of Beit Furik were picking olives in their fields Tuesday morning when four armed men from the nearby Jewish settlement of Itamar opened fire from M-16 assault rifles, Palestinian witnesses said.

Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a settler spokesman, said the farmers attacked the Itamar residents with knives and iron bars, and that the settlers fired warning shots in the air before aiming at the Palestinians.

Farmer Farid Nasrara, 28, was killed by a shot in the abdomen, according to doctors at a hospital in the nearby Palestinian town of Nablus. Three other villagers were injured, including Khaled Issa, 34, who was wounded in the leg, and his cousin Hamdi, 42, who was hit in the back. Hamdi Issa said shots penetrated a sack of olives he was carrying on his back at the time.

The Israeli police and army said they were investigating.

At the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, several hundred Palestinians hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli troops manning the checkpoint.

The Israeli army said a sniper shot at a demonstrator hurling a firebomb and injured him in the leg. The army said troops are under orders to shoot live rounds at firebomb-throwers. Israel considers firebombs a threat to the lives of soldiers, the army said.

Ninth-grader Muayed Darwish, 15, was throwing a firebomb at an Israeli enclave in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Monday when he was shot and killed by a bullet in the head.

Thousands of mourners on Tuesday gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square--bordering the Church of the Nativity where tradition says Jesus was born--to join Darwish' funeral procession.

Some mourners yelled, ``No to Sharm el-Sheik, yes to armed struggle.''

Mourner Khalil Azea, 17, took two bullets from his left pocket. ``That's what the Israelis understand and that's what we will fight for,'' he said. ``We don't believe in peace anymore.''

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