"We are trying ... to prevent members of our (armed Palestinians) from opening fire," Arafat told reporters following Friday's prayers in one of the mosques in Gaza City. "These are clear instructions made by the Palestinian authority's highest security council."
This is the first time since the eruption of violence in the Palestinian territories on Sept. 28 that Arafat, who leads the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah, has appealed for calm. Israel says Fatah leads the fighting against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Arafat accused Israel of what he called continuing military escalation on Palestinian civilians and houses in the West Bank and Gaza, after two Palestinian police officers were killed earlier Friday in the West Bank town of Jericho.
He also called on the European Union to work hard on the issue of sending multinational forces to protect Palestinians from Israeli military attacks.
Meanwhile, clashes in the West Bank and Gaza between Israeli soldiers and dozens of Palestinian stones throwers were renewed following Friday's prayers, where Palestinians threw stones and Israeli soldiers returned fire and used tear gas.
Palestinian medical sources reported that a 37-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier and arrived dead to the hospital in Nablus.
Palestinian radio also reported that several people were shot and wounded in the clashes with the Israeli soldiers.
More than 220 people have been killed in the violence so far, a vast majority of them Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.
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