HEBRON, West Bank — Palestinians fired on Jewish settler enclaves in divided Hebron on Friday, hours after a brief Israeli incursion into the Palestinian-controlled sector of the city in retaliation for earlier shooting attacks.
The latest gunfire came even as Israel's defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, warned that no Palestinian attack would go unanswered. "There will be no situation in which they send terrorists or continue shooting . . . and we will sit quietly and not respond," he said on Israeli TV.
Meanwhile, 50,000 people turned out in the West Bank town of Nablus for a rally led by the Islamic militant group Hamas and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. About 50 Fatah men brandishing guns drove up in cars, while some 150 Hamas activists appeared in robes meant to symbolize death shrouds of suicide bombers.
Hamas and Fatah have been cooperating in the past 11 months of fighting with Israel. Hamas has carried out a series of suicide bombings, while Fatah gunmen have targeted Israeli civilians.
In a smaller gathering, dozens of Fatah faction gunmen marched with about 500 people in the Palestinian section of Hebron. "We will continue our resistance," Fatah official Diab Sharabati told the crowd.
Shortly after the rally, gunmen opened fire on two settler enclaves. Israeli troops in the enclaves returned fire, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli tank fired several shells, including one that hit a building and set it on fire, the witnesses said. The army said it was checking the report.