Continuation of violent clashes for the fourth day in a row between the Palestinian masses and Israeli troops in the various cities and villages of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Several funerals were organized today; one in Nablus, one in Ramallah, one in Qattanah and one in Um al-Fahem. Israeli helicopters launched rockets at two residential buildings in Gaza, a post of the national security forces and a jeep of a Chinese journalist.

Regarding the latest number of casualties among the Palestinians, there are five confirmed martyrs, including a 12-year old child from Gaza, a member of the national security forces in Jericho and a Palestinian from Nazareth inside the Green Line. Other unconfirmed reports talk about between 6 and 7 martyrs. There have been around 190 injury cases so far.

Saeb Erekat - the Chief of negotiator states that Israeli government is responsible for the current developments, which is the side that permitted Sharon to desecrate al-Haram al-Sharief, along with the great number of soldiers who were stationed to protect him. The Israeli government continues building settlements and is far away from the right track of the peace process, and proceeds with no regret whatsoever committing massacres against the Palestinian people for the last 4 days; the Israeli side is responsible. It is clear that they claim and give the impression to the whole that they intend to withdraw from the sensitive and friction locations but they do not apply this on the ground. What is going on shows that it is a systemic program Barak is trying to achieve when he failed on the negotiation table, and he wants to teach the Palestinian people a lesson. There is a preplanned, premeditated and continuos scheme. The only solution is for the UN to form an international inquiry commission and deploy it immediately. This is the only way to stop the massacres and the war against our people. Yesterday President Arafat had a phone call with the US side and they agreed to form a Tripartite Committee to investigate the facts and make Israel withdraw from the friction areas but as we see on the ground, the escalation continues.