By Megan Goldin
 JERUSALEM
(Reuters) - The sound of gunshots echoed in many parts of the
West Bank overnight as Israelis and Palestinians marked the start
of the 27th day of clashes on Tuesday with more bloodshed.
As the wave
of violence continued, Palestinians planned to march on Israeli
checkpoints on Tuesday to protest Israel's ban on Palestinian
laborers entering the Jewish State.
The protests
to flashpoint areas where Israeli soldiers stand guard were expected
to spark a new round of clashes in the wave of violence that has
decimated Middle East peacemaking.
It coincides
with an Islamic holiday celebrating the Prophet Mohammed's ascension
to heaven from Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the holy site
that sparked the violence.
The shrine
has become the rallying cry for Palestinians waging the ``Al-Aqsa
intifada'' (uprising) against Israel. It is sacred to Jews as
the Temple Mount where the biblical Jewish temples once stood.
A religious
and political argument over sovereignty of the shrine was the
prime reason Israel and the Palestinians failed to forge an historic
peace treaty at a July summit.
The violence
began after right-wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon visited the holy
site on September 28.
Palestinians
revile the 72-year-old former army general for turning a blind
eye to the massacre of Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christians
during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. They say his visit
to Al-Aqsa defiled the shrine.
Barak Woos
Sharon, Puts Peace On Hold
But Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, whose minority government is teetering
on the edge of a political abyss, has turned to the right-wing
heavyweight to forge an emergency unity government to deal with
the violence with the Palestinians.
Sharon and
Barak failed to agree on terms for the new government in talks
on Monday. But Sharon said negotiations were just beginning and
he was hopeful an agreement would be reached.
``What's important
for me is our ability to truly influence the peace process,''
Sharon told Israel Radio.
That is exactly
what scares Palestinians and left-wing Israelis who say a Barak-Sharon
partnership could eliminate any chance of returning to peace talks
after bloodshed in which at least 128 people, all but eight of
them Arabs, have been killed.
They fear
the temporary time-out that Barak has called in already deadlocked
peace talks would become permanent if Sharon were to share power
with Barak.
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