A bomb placed at the entrance to the greenhouses of the Gaza settlement of Netzer Hazani explodes, lightly injuring two Israelis. Troops direct heavy machine-gun fire at the gunmen who are shooting from buildings on the edge of Ramallah. Palestinians report seven protesters injured. Palestinians say 11 demonstrators are wounded in clashes with troops at the Karni crossing in Gaza. Palestinian gunmen fire on an IDF outpost near Gaza's Rafah refugee camp on the Israel-Egypt border.
Troops return fire.
While a Palestinian official was quoted as saying that he and his colleagues had wanted to hear about the lifting of Israel's blockade in the territories, an Israeli official said there had been no real progress and that he and his colleagues had repeated their position that the Palestinians had to reduce the violence. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Friday to discuss the government's response to the Egypt-Jordan proposal before Peres heads for Cairo on Sunday where he will discuss the plan with President Hosni Mubarak. Ha'aretz diplomatic correspondent, Aluf Benn, reports that the two also decided that Peres will present Israel's reservations regarding the initiative and will suggest that talks take place around the clauses contained in the proposal. The goal of this dialogue would be to ultimately generate a document acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians and which could then be used as a basis for ending the violence and reigniting peace talks. We thought that from then on the conflict would wane and peace was in the cards.