TULKARM, WEST BANK -- In a rare letter of protest sent this week to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian women's group demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop using children as cannon fodder.
''Our children are being sent into the streets to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers,'' said the letter from the Tulkarm Women's Union -- a local branch of the Palestinian Women's Union, a trade-union group that promotes the status of women in the Palestinian Authority.
''The Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death.''