Israeli Police commandos stormed a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews ripping down a fluttering Palestinian flag, and nine Palestinians were killed in gun battles with Israeli troops throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A tenth Palestinian died of wounds inflicted a day earlier. On Friday it started with both sides endeavoring to enforce a US-brokered truce, but its quick collapse underscored how far apart the two sides still are, and how powerfully symbolic sites such as the mosque compound in Jerusalem`s walled old city have the power to overwhelm good intentions. A combative Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke, for the first time, in terms of war. “With the same determination we had in leaving no stone unturned to find a way toward peace, with the same determination . We will fight and defend our soldiers and our citizens, even if it is against the whole world,” Barak told ‘Channel Two’ television. Barak has resisted international pressure to allow UN Commission to investigate the latest outbreak of violence, which has so far taken 77 lives and left more than 1,900 hurt. While the fighting raged on Friday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat spent the day away from the region, travelling first to Tunisia and then on to Spain. Near Tunis, about 10,000 people joined Arafat and Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at a rally to voice support for thepalestinian cause. In the Gaza strip, Palestinian gunmen kept up attacks on flashpoint, the isolated netzarim settlement.
Meanwhile, riots broke out in Jordan and Syria over Israel`s conduct in a week of clashes with the Palestinians, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak berated Israel`s prime minister for failing to attend talks in Egypt intended to help bring an end to the violence. Bureau Report