In continuing Middle East violence Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians in an exchange of shots near a Gaza Strip border crossing with Egypt. A third Palestinian was killed by a fellow Palestinian for allegedly being a collaborator and Jewish settlers shot dead a fourth Palestinian, said to be 18-years-old, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
On the political front Israeli and Palestinian delegations are to have separate talks with American officials in Washington next week, in a bid to revive the peace process. The Palestinian Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, has confirmed negotiations will be staged with American officials in Washington on Tuesday in a bid to revive the Middle-East peace process. It is understood Israeli negotiators will hold separate talks with the White House. It is hoped the meeting will lead to trilateral negotiations and a summit meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak and the Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat.
Meanwhile, an explosion has killed a senior activist in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, a Fatah official said, calling the blast an Israeli assassination. The official identified the dead man as Sameeh Mala'beh, 28, of the Qalandia refugee camp near Jerusalem.
