Jerusalem, Sunday
ISRAELI soldiers at a Gaza Strip border crossing shot at a British
diplomat's car, damaging its windscreen, after he failed to heed an
order to stop, both sides said yesterday.
Mr Peter Morrison, the cultural attache at the British consulate in
Jerusalem, was not injured in the incident which happened late on
Saturday night, when he was leaving Palestinian-ruled Gaza via Nahal Oz
checkpoint.
Military officials said soldiers ordered the car, bearing diplomatic
number plates, to stop. When it kept going, they fired in the air and
then at the car. The car stopped and it became clear the driver was a
British diplomat.
''Warning shots were fired over his car and at the time he was not
aware that there was any checkpoint here or any soldiers because he
couldn't see any soldiers. He drove on,'' said Consul General Richard
Dalton.
''When he saw the soldiers, he stopped and identified himself,''
Dalton said. A bullet slightly damaged the car's windscreen, he added.
Today near another crossing point from Gaza to Israel, Israeli troops
shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian they suspected was a suicide
bomber, army radio said.
* Israeli Ministers, briefed on security in the Palestinian self-rule
areas, said today that changes in the Israel-PLO peace deal might be
necessary to protect Jewish settlers.
Israel Radio reported that the head of army intelligence,
Major-General Uri Saguy, told the cabinet the Gaza Strip run by PLO
chief Yasser Arafat showed signs of ''Lebanonisation'' -- conflict
between armed militias.
The briefing, just before talks planned for Tuesday in Cairo on
extending self-rule to the rest of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, will
serve as the basis for a further cabinet discussion on Wednesday on the
peace deal.
Under the next stage of agreement, the Israeli army is to pull out of
Palestinian population centres in the West Bank on the eve of elections
to a self-rule council. -Reuter.
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