Violence stalls ceasefire cooling off period

Palestinians fired a mortar shell and threw grenades at Israeli positions in the Gaza Strip today - low-level violence that might hold up the start of a week-long ceasefire test period.

The truce was negotiated by CIA director George Tenet and was to have gone into effect on June 13. However, seven Israelis and eight Palestinians have been killed in fighting since then.

Israel claims that Palestinian gunmen are persistently targeting Israeli motorists, while Palestinians say Israeli troops continue to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians.

Today, Palestinians fired a mortar shell at the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. Also, Palestinians threw five hand grenades at an Israeli army post near the Egyptian border. No one was hurt in the incidents.

Near the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, five Palestinians were wounded. First Palestinian reports said the five were hurt by an Israeli tank shells, but officials also raised the possibility that the men were injured while firing a mortar shell.

The Israeli army said it was looking into the incident.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office, meanwhile, said in a statement that Palestinian security forces must "exert maximum effort" to arrest the gunmen who killed an Israeli motorist last night in a roadside ambush.

By Friday, no arrests had been made.

The victim, Katrina Weintraub, 28, was killed yesterday at the entrance of the Jewish settlement of Ganim in the West Bank. The gunmen shot from a car near the settlement and also wounded an Israeli woman driving in a car behind Weintraub’s.

A faction of Arafat’s Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the killing.

After talks with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said both had agreed on a time line toward resuming peace talks.

He said seven days without violence would lead to a six-week cooling off period, prescribed by an international commission headed by former US Senator George Mitchell.

The cooling off period is to be followed by confidence-building measures, including a construction freeze in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.