Clashes continue in Israel dispite diplomatic activity

Palestinian officials complained to a US envoy today about Israeli restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while Palestinian students trying to force open a road to their university scuffled with Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian negotiators met with US Middle East envoy William Burns to work on a schedule to follow through on the recommendations of a commission led by former US senator George Mitchell.

The Palestinians would continue to meet with Burns, Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qureia said, despite growing frustration with continued Israeli travel restrictions and curfews placed on West Bank and Gaza Strip towns in response to a June 1 bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco that killed 21 people, including the bomber.

He said: ‘‘We raised in this meeting the continuous Israeli attacks against our people and we told the American envoy that such acts don’t show seriousness from the Israeli side to calm down the situation.’’

Israel eased the restrictions somewhat in the past week, allowing food, fuel and raw goods into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but travel restrictions and curfews keep Palestinians confined to their villages.

Meanwhile, Arafat’s meeting with UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen was delayed by more than half an hour because Roed-Larsen was stuck in traffic entering Ramallah.

Since Israel placed the travel restrictions on Palestinians, travel to and from Ramallah has required long waits in traffic to pass through Israeli army roadblocks.

Roed-Larsen later described his meeting with Arafat as ‘‘excellent’’.

‘‘I am realistic and I have good hopes that we will make progress in the context of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s visit here, but we have always to keep in mind that the situation is very difficult,’’ he said.

Annan will travel to the region next week as part of an international push to resume peace talks between the two sides.

Near Bir Zeit University, on the outskirts of Ramallah, more than 2,000 demonstrators, most of them students, began pushing at the cement blocks cutting off traffic to the university and neighbouring villages.

Israeli soldiers initially pulled back and watched the demonstration, before moving two army jeeps further up the road.

When Palestinian people and vehicles started moving through the old roadblock, soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets into the crowd.

Demonstrators responded with stones and hospital officials said 17 Palestinians were injured, 15 of them slightly.

An Israeli army spokesman said the soldiers were trying to disperse the crowd with tear gas and by firing rubber bullets at the ground.

‘‘They faced a peaceful demonstration with force, but we broke it, if only for a little while,’’ said Rami Abdel Wahed, a 23-year-old civil engineering student.

After two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, Tenet met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, where he was to brief him on the latest developments.

Neither party released a statement at the end of the 30-minute meeting.

At yesterday’s three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian security officials, Tenet presented a written proposal containing a timeline for implementing commitments made at an October summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, and the Mitchell report, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity.

He is expected to hold another meeting with the two sides tomorrow to hear their responses to the paper.

Tenet’s participation marks the highest-level Bush administration involvement in stemming the violence that broke out September 28 and has killed 484 people on the Palestinian side and 108 on the Israeli side.

Both the Sharm el-Sheik agreement and the Mitchell report call for an end to violence.

The latter specifies an end to violence, a cooling-off period, confidence-building measures, then a return to talks.

Israel contends Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat isn’t doing enough to arrest militants and halt attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Palestinians maintain they are only responsible for security in areas under their sole authority, a claim Israel rejects.

Israel’s army radio reported late yesterday that Tenet had reiterated an appeal to Arafat to arrest Islamic militants.

Israeli officials did not respond to calls for comment.