Palestinians clash with militant Jews in Jerusalem

GAZA, Sept 20 (KUNA) -- Fierce clashes erupted on Monday between Palestinian activists and militant Jews in Jerusalem, local radio stations reported.
The violence broke out between security personnel guarding Jewish settlers at a house they have recently occupied in the district of Batn Al-Hawa in the town of Salwan in Jerusalem, the radio stations reported.
The Israeli troops called in reinforcements, blocked a main street in the region, dispersed the Palestinians with tear gas and volleys of rubber bullets, prompting the Arab activists to respond with a hail of stones and empty bottles, the radio stations reported, indicating that several Palestinians were wounded during the clashes.
Identical incidents have recently taken place in the Jerusalem region between the Palestinian natives and Jewish settlers, protected by heavily-armed Israeli troops.
Separately, the Israeli Army reported that a single locally-made rocket, fired from Gaza, harmlessly crashed into an empty plot of land in the Israeli town of Eshkol in the south of Israel.
There was no claim of responsibility for the fresh missile attack. Late on Sunday, Al-Nasser Salah Eddine Brigades, the military wing of the People Resistance Committees, declared responsibility for a mortar attack that targeted an Israeli military force east of the town of Rafah in the south of Gaza.
The committees constitute an umbrella for several Palestinian factions that coordinate clandestine guerrilla action against the Israeli occupation.
On Tuesday, three Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the tunnels' sites on the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Such intermittent violence is widely viewed by observers as implying political messages for their coincidence with present US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. Militant Palestinian factions have lashed out at Aabbas' bids to reach a settlement for the Palestinian cause, "as treacherous." (end) mzt.rk KUNA 210040 Sep 10NNNN