Palestinian President Suspends Peace Talks

Nine-year-old Yehye Dardona was one of those being cared for in Gaza, days after he became the only survivor among a group of five friends who were struck by an Israeli missile as they played soccer.

"They are giving me medicine, but it is not enough," said Yehye, whose face, legs and feet were wrapped in bandages. "I am in pain."

Images of dead and wounded children have been broadcast continually on Arab-language television stations, and the anger was palpable Sunday in the West Bank, where thousands protested in solidarity with their fellow Palestinians in Gaza.

The Palestinian territories have been deeply divided since June, with the radical Islamic movement Hamas taking over in Gaza and the secular, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority remaining in the West Bank. Since then, Israel has pressed Abbas to stop the rocket fire from Gaza, despite the fact that he has no control there. In the West Bank, he has struggled to persuade people to accept the peace talks, a task that appeared to grow even more challenging with the latest violence.

Hamas has called for the destruction of Israel, but Abbas has staked his presidency on negotiations leading to a Palestinian state side-by-side with a Jewish state.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of the negotiations said the Israeli offensive had put Abbas in a no-win situation. "You either lose the world or you lose your people," he said. "Israel wants us to say no to negotiations so they can say to the world, 'We were ready to make painful concessions, but the Palestinians didn't want to come to the table.' "

West Bank demonstrators on Sunday chanted anti-Israeli slogans and called for an end to negotiations that they said have gone nowhere, despite President Bush's predictions of an agreement by the end of the year.

"President Bush had promised that by the end of 2008, there would be a Palestinian state. And in the year 2008, America and Israel are massacring the Palestinian people," said Fadi Abu Samra, 27, a fruit seller offering strawberries and bananas outside a refugee camp just north of Jerusalem.

Samra pointed to a spot 100 yards away, where Israeli troops crouching behind concrete barriers fired tear gas shells and stun grenades at Palestinian children, who countered with rocks. Thick black smoke from a burning tire billowed into the sky. "All of this is from the Americans," he said.

Clashes between Israeli soldiers and demonstrators turned deadly in the West Bank city of Hebron, where a Palestinian teenager was killed.

In Ramallah, home of the Palestinian Authority headquarters, hundreds of people took to the streets, some openly waving Hamas flags -- a rare sight in an area where the movement has been effectively banned.

"This is Palestinian blood that is being shed. It is not Hamas blood or Fatah blood," said Ibrahim Abu Adma, 26. "The children who are dying are not Fatah or Hamas."