Israel missile strikes kill three Palestinians

There were tentative plans for talks in Gaza today between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, but as of this morning nothing had been formally announced and it appeared no meeting would happen.

‘‘This escalation is aimed at sabotaging the meeting with Peres,’’ Arafat said yesterday in Gaza City, not far from the scene of one attack.

Israel’s military cited two reasons for the missile raids: a Palestinian attack on Friday that wounded two Israeli border policemen, and Israel’s belief that the security buildings were being used to train and arm militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been reluctant to sanction truce talks at present, saying Arafat must first crack down on Palestinian militants.

In renewed violence early today, Israeli tanks began shelling Palestinian security positions in the West Bank town of Ramallah. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The United States wants truce talks to calm tensions in the Middle East, and President Bush called Sharon on Friday to press the point.

Further Middle East fighting could hamper US efforts to bring Arab states into the anti-terrorism coalition the Americans seek to build following the attacks in the United States that killed thousands.

Yesterday’s Israeli missile attacks on three separate security targets in Gaza damaged buildings, sent panicked people running into the streets and black plumes of smoke into the sky.

Twelve Palestinians were hurt, including five policemen, the Palestinians said.

The southern Gaza town of Khan Younis was the scene of two separate shooting incidents.

Before dawn, two Palestinians were killed in a clash between Israeli tanks and Palestinian gunmen, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In a second incident, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed, and 19 Palestinians wounded by Israeli machine gun fire in Khan Younis, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said.

Also, two Israelis were shot and wounded, one critically, in a drive-by shooting on the northern edge of Jerusalem later Saturday night, police said.

If the fighting continues unabated, Arab states may be less inclined to co-operate with the United States and its proposed anti-terrorism coalition.

However, if Israel seems reluctant to hold truce talks with the Palestinians, that could cause friction between the United States and Israel.

Sharon has compared Arafat to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire named as a prime suspect in the terror attacks in the United States.

The Palestinians say Israel is stepping up military actions at a time when international attention is focused on the terrorist attacks in United States.

In another development, Abdullah Shami, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad movement, told Israel television that his group was ‘‘very happy about the incident in the United States, even though we are not responsible.’’

Islamic Jihad has carried out numerous suicide bombings in Israel.

However, when Shami was contacted by a news agency and asked about the attacks in New York and Washington, he sounded a different note.

‘‘Although we reject the American foreign policy... we are not glad to see innocent people suffering because we are living through the same problems,’’ he said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, yesterday some 3,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv for a candlelight vigil and moment of silence to express solidarity with the US in the wake of this week’s terror attacks in New York and Washington.

Speaking at the Tel Aviv plaza where former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated almost six years ago, Peres sought to comfort the crowd.

‘‘It is again the United States of America that will lead the struggle for freedom, for security, for humanity,’’ he said.