October 22, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 4, 1422

TEL AVIV, Oct 21: More than 900 people, mostly Palestinians, were killed and thousands injured in the past 13 months of violence in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel, official Israeli and Palestinian figures released on Sunday showed.

A total of 929 people have been killed and more than 18,000 injured since the Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel erupted last September.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 744 Palestinians died and 16,370 were injured.

Palestinian gunmen, suicide bombers and car bombs killed 185 Israelis — 53 of them soldiers — and injured 1,670, official statistics by the Israeli army show.

Last month alone, 69 Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian figures, the highest number since November last year.

Palestinian sources have given conflicting reports on the number of Palestinian victims.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says its figures include dozens of suicide bombers and people who died as a result of Israeli army action, for example Palestinians who were prevented from getting medical treatment because of Israeli roadblocks.

POPE DEPLORES: Pope John Paul II deplored confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians in Bethlehem, on Sunday.

The pope said the violence in the Middle East was a “path of death, which dishonors God’s name.”

“With great sadness I learned of the painful and preoccupying information coming from Bethlehem and (nearby) Beit Jala,” he said during a homily following a mass in which he beatified two Italians.

“War and death have even come to the square at the Church of the Nativity,” he said.

“I repeat one more time in the name of God: violence is for everyone a path of death and destruction which dishonors God’s name and the dignity of human beings,” he added.—dpa/AFP