Prepared by: Hadeel Wahdan

Fierce battles have been raging in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as  Palestinians protest over Israel's continued refusal to release Palestinian prisoners.The Israelis say the protests are holding up progress in the peace talks and souring the atmosphere.

Protests earlier in the week left at least six Palestinians dead and more than 1300 wounded. Israeli security forces had been put on high alert, with  Tanks and helicopters ready to deal with the widespread demonstrations in all West Bank and Gaza Strip.

What has been called "days of rage" were called to protest against Israel's refusal to free more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners (230 of them were arrested before the assigning of Oslo), some of whom have been on hunger strike since the beginning of the month. Israel, which argues that many of the prisoners were involved in acts of violence against Israeli civilians, has said it has no plans to release anyone in the near future. Palestinian groups organizing the latest demonstrations urged people not to resort to firearms when confronted by the Israeli army.

Beginning on Sunday, scores of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli detention center Magedow were injured in clashes with the prison guards and occupation forces. The prisoners organized demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners who staged a hunger strike.

Monday 15, marked by Palestinians as the day of the Nakba, or Catastrophe, the expulsion and dispossession of Palestine 52 years ago.

During the clashes three Palestinians were killed and at least 320 injured.

Additionally, two Palestinian children were killed when Israeli settlers deliberately ran them down near the Jewish colony of "Alfe Menashe", on the Outskirts of Qalqiliya. The clashes broke out in al-Bireh, Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah and near the Jewish colony "Netzarim" in Gaza.

The occupation showed force by trying to enter Nablus and Ramallah with Heavy armed trucks and Apache helicopters that flew over, detonating aerial flares in loud but harmless bursts of smoke and lighten the 1996 tunnel clashes, Israeli Cobra helicopters were shooting on Palestinian civilians from the air. Crowds of Palestinian onlookers, mistaking the flares for bombs, scattered in fright.

The occupation forces used excessive live ammunition and rubber-coated metal bullets. Eighty-five percent of those injured by Israeli gunfire in the last weeks have been children under 18 years old. Sources in Gaza said that the occupation forces used a new type of bullet, which upon penetration causes trembling, vomiting and fainting, raising suspicions that it is coated with harmful chemicals.

At the beginning of the week, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen – some of them members of “Palestinian Security Forces” - fought long gun battles on the streets of the West Bank. The anger, which fuelled those engagements, has not diminished and Israel's display of strength was designed to send a warning to the Palestinians not to attempt a repeat of this week clashes.

Palestinian officials acknowledge privately that this week's violence has gone further than they would have wished. This suggests that popular frustration is now at a dangerous peak.