Palestinian policeman shot in West Bank fight

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian policeman was
critically wounded on Friday in a West Bank gunfight that
officers had tried to break up, police said.

The shooting in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm
underscored the difficulties faced by Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas in reining in a wave of lawlessness in the
territory Palestinians seek for a state.

Police officials said half a dozen officers rushed to the
scene of the shootout between two Palestinian men outside a
cafe. One of the policemen was shot in the stomach after police
fired into the air to try to restore order.

The wounded officer, 29, was rushed to nearby Tulkarm
hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Police
arrested a suspect, the officials said.

The shooting in a town Israel handed over to Palestinian
police control some months ago was the latest of a series of
incidents in the Palestinian territories where gunmen have
defied Abbas’s efforts to keep weapons off the streets.

In their Washington summit on Thursday, U.S. President
George W. Bush urged Abbas to crack down on “armed gangs” to
advance to peace talks with Israel.

It was not clear whether either of the men involved in the
gunfight belonged to militant groups.

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 Middle East War, an
area now home to 2.4 million Palestinians and 245,000 Israeli
settlers.