Israel has arrested six members of Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17 guard, as both sides gathered for funerals of children killed in the conflict. Israel arrested six members of Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17 guard, Palestinians said, as both sides gathered for funerals of children killed in the conflict.Tension was high in the West Bank and Gaza after two days of intense clashes. Today, Palestinians buried seven people killed in confrontations with Israeli troops.Israeli police and security remained on high alert for attacks inside Israel by Palestinian militants, after a string of bombings.In Ramallah, an 11–year–old boy, Mohammed Tamini, died today of wounds suffered in a clash with Israeli forces on March 15, hospital doctors said. Palestinians were preparing a midday funeral for him.Israeli special forces arrested the six Palestinians, including a regional commander of Force 17, at the entrance to the village of Jilijiyeh, north of Ramallah, said Palestinian official Ribhi Arafat.An Israeli official, insisting on anonymity, confirmed the arrests, but said that only five were Force 17 members. On Wednesday, Israeli helicopters attacked Force 17 headquarters and buildings in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, after Israel charged that commanders of the elite force were directly involved in attacks against Israelis.Israeli officials pledged to continue their operations against Force 17, considered the best–trained force in Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian police and responsible for his personal safety.The Palestinians said Israeli forces raided a Force 17 roadblock and arrested everyone there.

Ribhi Arafat said Israel is holding at least 35 members of Palestinian security forces, accusing them of gunfire attacks against Israelis.Palestinian leaders stepped up security measures, expecting Israeli attempts on their lives, Palestinian security officials said. The leader of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, and Force 17 commander Mahmoud Damara added bodyguards, and neither is sleeping at home, they said.Palestinians say Israel has targeted and killed at least a dozen Palestinian activists since the current uprising erupted on September 28. Israel has acknowledged some of the killings and refused comment on others.Cabinet Minister Ephraim Sneh said Sunday that the policy of targeting activists has not changed. “As soon as there is a target, and hitting it will prevent new terrorist attacks, it has to be hit,” he told Israel radio. Gideon Ezra, the deputy internal security minister, said the main targets would be “middle–rank officials” who supply materials for attacks.In the divided West Bank city Hebron, Jewish settlers and their supporters gathered for the funeral of Shalhevet Pass, a 10–month–old baby killed in a gunfire incident on Monday. The Israeli military said a sniper on a Palestinian–controlled Abu Sneineh hill across from a Jewish enclave killed the baby and wounded her father with a single shot.Her parents had refused to bury her until Israeli forces recaptured the hill from the Palestinians.

A local rabbi approved the unusual delay, while others, including chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau, insisted that Jewish law, requiring immediate burial, must be applied.On Friday, after the father, Yitzhak Pass, was released from a Jerusalem hospital, the family agreed to hold the funeral, with a procession starting at the contested Hebron holy site, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, traditional burial place of the biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives, sacred to both Jews and Muslims.Hebron is divided into Israeli and Palestinian–controlled zones, with the Israelis patrolling the section where the Jewish settlers live, some in houses owned by Jews before a 1929 massacre and expulsion.Since the uprising began, 454 people have been killed, including 373 Palestinians, 62 Israeli Jews and 19 others.. Eleven people died after two bombs ripped through the crowd at a stadium packed with 100,000 people during a concert in Sri Lanka. Two bombs ripped through the crowd at a stadium packed with 100,000 people during a concert in Sri Lanka today, and the explosions and ensuing stampede killed 11 people and wounded at least 150, doctors said.Delirious crowds were singing and dancing to the music of popular Sinhala singers in a stadium in Kurunegala, about 62 miles north–east of Colombo, when the bombs exploded, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity.”I was sitting on the ground, enjoying the music, when there was a loud explosion and I suddenly found blood all over me,” said Gamini Kumara, 16. “Several of my friends were lying on the ground.”He was being treated for head injuries and did not know where his friends were.Hours after the blast, hundreds of shoes and pieces of torn clothing lay strewn about the area.Police blamed the attack on gang warfare. No arrests were immediately made.Explosions in Sri Lanka are often linked to the civil war between the government and the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in this small tropical island country.A police officer at the site said he heard two bombs going off in quick succession.