| Oddly enough, none of our usual Israeli sources thought this worth reporting. |
At least four people were maimed by live ammunition in al-Bireh, near Ramallah, the ministry said, adding that doctors were operating to try to save the life of one person shot in the heart.
Another six Paleostinians were hit with live ammunition in festivities in the city of Tulkarem, north of Tel Aviv.
In total, "62 citizens were maimed by live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets during festivities with the (Israeli) occupation in Tulkarem, Ramallah, Al-Bireh and Bethlehem."
The Israeli army said its forces had responded to attacks.
"Rioters attacked forces and hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at them. The forces then responded," including with live fire, the statement said.
Between 200 and 300 Paleostinians, flanked by a yellow truck playing nationalist songs, marched towards Israeli forces in al-Bireh, with youths throwing stones and rolling burning tires towards security forces.
Those forces fired tear gas and live ammunition at the crowds in a bid to disperse them, an AFP correspondent reported.
In Gazoo City, around 2,000 Paleostinian protested outside the offices of the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
, with many holding signs venerating Arafat. There were no reports of violence .
Wednesday's protests came amid a weeks-long wave of violence, including gun, knife and car-ramming attacks by Paleostinians.
The violence has claimed the lives of at least 77 people on the Paleostinian side -- one of them an Israeli Arab -- along with 10 Israelis. Many of the Paleostinians killed were alleged attackers.
- 'The whole truth' -
The long-time Paleostinian leader, aged 75, died in 2004 at a military hospital near Gay Paree after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in Ramallah.
Paleostinian officials have repeatedly pointed the finger at Israel for his death, with accusations of polonium poisoning. Israel has always denied the claims.
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
said a commission of inquiry investigating Arafat's death has "come a long way" but was not yet ready to release a final report.
Speaking on official television, he said many of the circumstances were still a mystery but we "assure our people the committee will continue its work until it discovers the whole truth."
In a wide-ranging speech, he again stressed his commitment to a unity government between his Fatah party and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the Islamist movement that controls the Gazoo Strip.
They formed one last year but it never really got off the ground before it fell apart.
On Tuesday, Hamas handed over Arafat's Gazoo residence to the Paleostine Liberation Organization in what they described as a conciliatory gesture.
Abbas said both movements were determined "to work together to form a national unity government based on the program of the Paleostine Liberation Organization, to organize elections and to convene a national Paleostinian council."
| ...which no doubt will work precisely as well as it has in all previous attempts, which is to say not at all. |