GAZA, Nov 11: Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians in violent confrontations that erupted following the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a French hospital on Thursday, Palestinians medics said.
Three Palestinians were killed, at least two of them gunmen, in fighting that erupted when militants from an armed group in Arafat's Fatah faction attacked a Jewish settlement in central Gaza after learning of the Palestinian leader's death.
Another Palestinian was killed in stone throwing clashes in the West Bank, Palestinian medics said.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the attack against the heavily fortified Netzarim settlement signalled a new round of clashes against Israel to avenge the death of the Palestinian leader.
Abu Qusai, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa brigades, said it held Israel responsible for Arafat's death, adding:
"Our groups together with brothers from other factions took to the battlefield with the enemy to make it pay the price ... The next days will witness violent clashes with the Zionists everywhere."
Gunmen set off bombs and mortar rounds and fired rocket propelled grenade and automatic gunfire at troops guarding Netzarim after news of Mr Arafat's death reached Gaza.
Three Palestinians were killed, two of them believed to be gunmen, in a gun battle. It was not immediately known whether a third person killed in the exchange, a 19-year-old, was a militant or a civilian.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old youth who the army said had been among 400 Palestinian protesters throwing bricks at Jewish settlers' cars and soldiers near the city of Hebron.
Israeli security forces are on high alert for violence from Palestinian militants who have been staging an armed uprising for the past four years.
Dozens of Palestinian youths threw stones at soldiers at a checkpoint near Ramallah.
Sporadic stone-throwing clashes were taking place in other parts of the West Bank, including at a shrine at the entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the army said.-Reuters
