Violence threatened a crucial summit meeting intended to promote Middle East peace efforts when Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians next to the Gaza-Israel border fence.
The military said soldiers spotted the three crawling toward the border fence near the Kissufim crossing point late on Sunday carrying a bag -- apparently planning to plant a bomb. Soldiers opened fire, the military said.
Palestinian officials said that the three were killed, and contacts were underway with the Israelis to turn over their bodies. It was the most serious incident of its kind since Israel completed its Gaza pullout last month.
The clash came as Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was to sit with Dov Weisglass, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Shar-on, a day before the scheduled summit between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. It was not immediately known whether the talks would proceed.
Though both sides had reasons to hold a well-publicized summit to symbolize continued progress toward peace after Israel's pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, Israel balked at making gestures it said would harm its security.
Palestinians said there was no point in a summit just for the pictures -- concrete results were needed. Abbas himself came under criticism last year when he was prime minister under the late Yasser Arafat for meeting Sharon but coming away empty-handed.
Abbas is to travel to Washington later this month to meet with US President George W. Bush, and he would be reluctant to arrive without any concrete achievements from a meeting with Sharon.
The Palestinian demands are familiar -- release of prisoners Israel is holding, hand-over of West Bank towns to Palestinian control, removal of army roadblocks and reopening the Gaza-Egypt border crossing. Israel appeared prepared to discuss the border, remove some roadblocks and free some prisoners, but not enough to satisfy the Palestinians. An Erekat-Weisglass meeting on Sunday ended without agreement.
Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday that he didn't know if the meeting will take place, stressing that he will not make moves that he believes threaten Israel's security.
"There are gestures that Israel can and will make, and there are gestures that it won't," he said, according to meeting participants.
Abbas has said that one of his goals will be to persuade Israel to carry out pledges it already has made, including pulling its troops out of five West Bank towns.
Israel agreed to the pullback as part of a February ceasefire. But the process stalled after two towns, Jericho and Tulkarem, were handed over, with Israel accusing the Palestinians of failing to take action against militants in those towns. Israel later retook Tulkarem after a suicide bomber from the area attacked an Israeli city.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz opposes any further hand-overs of Palestinian towns, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday. Mofaz also objects to supplying Abbas' security forces with new weapons.
The Palestinians say their security forces need better equipment to restore law and order in the chaotic Palestinian areas. Abbas has resisted international calls to disarm militant groups, fearing it would provoke civil war, though he recently banned armed groups from displaying weapons.
The militants have repeatedly ignored the ban, while leaders of Abbas' Fatah movement called a news conference in Gaza late on Sunday to reaffirm their commitment to it.
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