From the BBC: Sunday, 12 May, 2002, 06:33 GMT 07:33 UK

THOUSANDS RALLY FOR PEACE IN TEL AVIV


The crowds gathered in Rabin Square
Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to
the streets of Tel Aviv to demand the
immediate withdrawal of the Israel army and
settlers from Palestinian territories.


The protest, organized by the Peace Now
movement, also called on the Israeli
Government to pursue the Saudi peace plan
which specifies a full withdrawal in return for
full peace with Arab countries.


The demonstration - the largest by Israel's peace
camp since the intifada began in September
2000 - gathered in Rabin Square, named after the 
assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.


The rally came as priests in the West Bank
town of Bethlehem prepared to hold religious
services in the Church of the Nativity, the first
since the siege of Palestinian gunmen by Israeli
troops there ended two days ago.


Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic priests will
hold Sunday services after keepers of the holy
site cleared away all the waste created during
the five-week stand-off.


But there were reports of further military
operations in the West Bank overnight.


Israeli army sources said several brief
incursions had been made - in the town of
Tulkarm and in a village near Qalqilya - acting
on specific intelligence to detain Palestinians
suspected of "anti-Israeli activities".


'No Israeli consensus'
The leader of the main opposition Meretz
party, Yossi Sarid, said the turn-out in Tel Aviv
was a sign that "there is a peace camp in
Israel and it is raising its voice".


"From tonight, [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel]
Sharon can be assured there is no consensus
for a military operation" in Gaza, he added.


Parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg, a critic
of the Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories,
called for his Labour party to withdraw from
Mr Sharon's hardline coalition government.


Police said about 60,000 people attended the
rally; Peace Now put the number at 100,000.


Tension in Gaza
Palestinians in Gaza are continuing to brace
themselves for a large military incursion after a
suicide bomb attack on Israeli civilians last
Tuesday, though the Israeli Government has
been reviewing its plans.


Israel's Defence Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer - a Labour hawk - says he is
ready to look again at a proposed attack on
Gaza because details of the military plans
have been extensively leaked and Palestinian
militants had been given too much time
to prepare possible booby traps around targets.


However he insisted that it was a purely
military decision, not the result of any foreign
intervention.


Palestinian medics in Gaza have retrieved the
body of a 13-year-old boy who had bled to
death as the Israel soldiers who had shot him
prevented a Palestinian ambulance from
approaching by firing further warning shots.


The death occurred on Friday, when
Palestinian teenagers were protesting near an
Israeli army outpost at the Qarni crossing. Two
other boys were wounded but ambulances
were able to reach them.


Palestinian militants have been preparing to
defend the territory and residents have been
stocking up on food.


"We are preparing for any possible incursion by
the Zionist enemy into Gaza and if it happens
we are ready with what we have... our light
weapons and pipe bombs," one masked militant
said.