RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised Thursday to continue attacking Palestinian military targets, but Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat vowed that the Arab uprising against Israel would continue.
"Our people will continue the al-Aqsa uprising until we raise the Palestinian flag in every mosque and church and on the walls of Jerusalem," Arafat said as he surveyed the destroyed dormitory buildings of his Force 17 presidential guard, which was attacked Wednesday night by Israeli helicopter gunships. An Israeli defense official who asked not to be identified said the missile attacks were the first phase of measures that will include a return to "liquidating" Palestinian militants.
Israeli soldiers take position after Jewish settlers and Palestinians pelted each other with stones in the old part of the divided West Bank town of Hebron. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday that the Palestinian uprising will continue despite Israel's warning delivered Wednesday night with rocket attacks on the bases of Palestinian security forces.
With efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians stalled, neither Sharon nor Arafat may be able to stop the escalating violence.
Virtually all Palestinian factions now back the uprising, which has already raged for six months and claimed 447 lives, 366 of them Palestinian. And a new wave of Palestinian terrorism this week is fueling Israeli calls for more muscular retaliation.
"We are so confused. We don't know where to start and where it will end," said Fahmi Hassan, 47, a Palestinian civil engineer. "We are suffering, both peoples."
President Bush called on both sides Thursday to defuse the tension, which increased sharply this week, but he singled out Arafat.
"The signal I'm sending to the Palestinians is stop the violence," Bush said at a news conference. " And I hope that Chairman Arafat hears it loud and clear." Secretary of State Colin Powell said he gave Arafat the same message when he spoke to him by telephone Thursday. But Arafat appears to have abandoned his calls for a return to peace talks and is talking tougher. Many Palestinian officials say he cannot do otherwise, considering how angry his people are.
Three more Palestinians died Thursday in clashes with Israeli forces. Israeli troops killed two Palestinian teen-agers who were throwing rocks at the Erez crossing, between Israel and the Gaza Strip to the south, and troops shot and killed a Palestinian security officer near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of defiant Palestinians took to the streets Thursday vowing to continue the uprising.
"The blood of the martyrs will be turned into the stones we throw," chanted mourners in a Palestinian funeral procession in the West Bank town of Ramallah, near Jerusalem, for Suad Abu Sheikh, 42. She was killed Wednesday night when Israeli missiles struck her car. "Despite the pain, we will continue the struggle," Palestinians yelled.
Israeli cities were strangely quiet as people stayed away from public places to avoid Palestinian terrorist attacks, which have intensified since Sharon took office three weeks ago.
"Is this peace?" said Lt. Col. Abu Thaer, a senior officer of Force 17 in Ramallah who was standing amid the burned carcasses of destroyed buildings, the smell of smoldering embers still in the air. "The Israelis are our enemies. They are anti-peace," he said.
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