Israeli President Seeks Probe Into Palestinian Deaths
Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians over the weekend, including two children in a helicopter raid, which led Israel's president on Sunday to call for an investigation into whether the army was ``trigger-happy.''

The violence also appeared to cloud prospects for the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian security talks on initial steps toward a truce in nearly two years of bloodshed.

In what Palestinians described as the killing of innocent quarry workers, Israeli soldiers outside the West Bank city of Hebron shot dead four Palestinians on Sunday.

An army spokesman said soldiers opened fire at the men after they had broken into a fenced-in agricultural area run by Jewish settlers, fearing a potential attack. The army said the men were carrying axes, clubs and wirecutters.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers entered Jenin refugee camp and killed Abdel-Kareem al-Saadeh after gunmen fired at them, Palestinian sources said. The Islamic Jihad group said the youth was one of their fighters.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat blasted Israel for the latest killings and accused its government of a deliberate policy to derail fragile efforts at a cease-fire.

``What happened is not a massacre, but massacres, with an Israeli decision from the highest military and political levels to end the peace process,'' Arafat told reporters.

Israeli President Moshe Katzav, a former right-wing Likud party lawmaker who now holds a largely ceremonial position, said during a visit to an Israeli Arab school that it was imperative the army examine its tactics following two strikes in the last week which killed several Palestinian civilians.

``The claim as to whether the (army) was trigger-happy must be examined,'' he said. ``If the army reaches the conclusion that this was the case, it will decide what to do -- but it would be hasty to draw conclusions now.''

Palestinians expressed anger at the latest deaths.

``All talks with the Israeli side should be suspended after all these massacres,'' Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html