A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister has said that no negotiations are underway with the Palestinians. In a televised interview, Raanan Gissen refuted suggestions by the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, that the Israelis had established a channel of contact with the Palestinians.
He added that talks would not be resumed until there was a complete cessation of violence. Mr Peres had been quoted by the Israeli media as saying he would meet with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, shortly to discuss reviving a US-brokered ceasefire.
The Israeli daily Haaretz said that Mr Peres had announced that contacts were being held with Palestinian officials "on different levels in an effort to bring about a ceasefire". The contacts were thought to refer to talks between foreign ministry Director General Avi Gil and senior Palestinian officials Saeb Erekat and Ahmed Qorei.
Earlier, Israeli troops reportedly shot dead a Palestinian man and a 13-year-old boy in separate incidents. Palestinian sources said that the boy was killed by Israeli troops in Gaza.
The sources also said that an unarmed 38-year-old man was killed when Israeli soldiers fired at a group of Palestinians who tried to avoid a checkpoint by walking along an unpaved road near the city of Nablus, in the West Bank. Five others were wounded in the shooting.
The Palestinian Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, accused the Israeli Army of killing unarmed Palestinians near army roadblocks "in cold blood" and in acts of "pure racism". The Israeli Army declined to comment on the killing in Nablus and said that it was checking the death in Gaza.
The two deaths bring the total number of those killed since the start of the intifada, or uprising, on 28 September 2000 to 722, including 555 Palestinians and 146 Israelis.
