JERUSALEM — Thousands of Palestinians marched in funerals Saturday for seven people killed in clashes with Israeli troops last week as scattered fighting continued. Fourteen Palestinians were injured.
Anger against Israel seethed throughout the Palestinian areas as dozens of Palestinian children dressed as suicide bombers led rallies in Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian leaders said the six-month uprising against Israel would continue.
Two girls were among the Palestinians injured by Israeli fire Saturday when clashes broke out at three points in the Gaza Strip. At Rafah and Erez, Palestinian protesters threw stones and firebombs at soldiers who responded with live rounds and rubber-coated steel bullets.
A 4-year-old was hurt by shrapnel from an Israeli tank shell fired at Rafah, and a 9-year-old was hit in the right leg by a bullet, said Dr. Radawn Al-Jiras of Rafah hospital. The Israeli army denied that any tanks fired shells in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers guarding the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip fired intensely on surrounding Palestinian areas late Saturday with guns and tank shells, Palestinian witnesses said. No injuries were reported, and the army did not comment.
Speaking after a week in which three Israelis were killed in attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would respond.
"I don't intend to sit idly in light of the shooting on innocent citizens," said Ben-Eliezer. He has suggested troops may enter Palestinian-controlled areas to track down attackers.
In Gaza, a 13-year-old Palestinian carrying an unloaded Kalashnikov rifle led a rally of about a dozen children who carried fake guns and were dressed in the traditional white burial clothing worn by "martyrs" killed fighting Israel.
"God is great!" shouted the leading child on stage as the children and a crowd of some 300 onlookers repeated after him. "Long live Palestine! Death to America, death to Israel!" Other Palestinian youths burned Israeli and American flags.
In Ramallah, funeral processions for two Palestinians killed last week were led by children wearing belts of fake explosives — copies of the real ones often worn by suicide bombers.
Two Palestinians who were lightly injured when tampering with a mortar shell in Jerusalem were arrested Saturday along with the Palestinian who drove them to the hospital, Israeli police said. Police said they suspect the Palestinians may have been preparing an explosive for an anti-Israeli attack, Israel radio reported.
The Palestinian Cabinet met in Ramallah and issued a statement saying "the Israeli aggression against Palestinian people is pushing conditions in the region and the Middle East toward deterioration and instability." It called on the world community to intervene to protect Palestinians.
Hundreds of Palestinians, including ministers, marched toward the U.N. headquarters in Gaza to protest the U.S. veto of a resolution in the Security Council calling for an international force to be sent to the region. Israel opposed the resolution.
"We condemn the American stance biased toward Israel," read a statement the protesters handed U.N. officials at the offices. "We hold the United States responsible for the historic injustices against the Palestinian people."
In the West Bank town of Nablus, five Palestinians killed Friday in a clash with Israeli troops were given a joint burial. About 40,000 mourners marched through the streets, led by five Palestinian police jeeps and about 30 gunmen firing in the air.
"The martyrs are a message to the world that the uprising will not stop until we get back our land and the Israeli occupation is over," Ali Faraj, an activist of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in Nablus, told the crowd.
Since Israeli-Palestinian fighting erupted in late September, 454 people have been killed, including 373 Palestinians, 62 Israeli Jews and 19 others.
In Hebron, residents inspected damage Saturday from Israeli shelling the day before, a response to Palestinian shooting on Jewish enclaves in the divided West Bank town. Twenty-seven Palestinians were lightly hurt by shrapnel, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Hebron has been particularly tense since a 10-month-old Israeli girl was killed by Palestinian fire there last week. The infant, Shalhevet Pass, was to be buried Sunday, after her father dropped a demand that the army first recapture the Palestinian-controlled neighborhood where the shots came from, Hebron settlers said.