2 Palestinians Shot to Death, Toll Up to 31

Two prominent Jewish settlers shot and killed a Palestinian teen-ager today in the West Bank, and Israeli troops killed an Arab who tried to grab a soldier’s rifle in the Gaza Strip, the army said

The West Bank shooting was the first officially confirmed involvement of Jewish civilians in the killing of Palestinians in the occupied territories since a wave of violence began Dec. 8.

The deaths today of 17-year-old Rabah Hussein Ghanam in Betin and of the man killed in Khan Yunis raised to 31 the number of Arabs the military says were killed by Israeli gunfire in the last month.

The shootings came as army curfews and a general strike enforced by Palestinian groups on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip kept many streets deserted. Some areas of Gaza were barricaded by demonstrators for the third straight day.

U.N. Trucks Turned Away

U.N. officials complained that the army as well as demonstrators was turning away their delivery trucks sent to the refugee camps. An Israeli army official denied that the army was involved.

The army’s head of central command, Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, said the settlers who killed Ghanam only opened fire because they had been ambushed by stone-throwing teen-agers and feared for their lives.

An Arab witness said, however, that the settlers’ car was blocked by burning tires and they chased Arab teen-agers standing nearby about 120 yards into the village.

According to the Palestinian witnesses, the settlers fired more than 50 rounds from automatic rifles, hitting Ghanam in the back and Ziad Abdul Jalid, 19, in both feet.

Mitzna identified the settlers as the head of the regional settlements’ council, Pinhas Wallerstein, and the chief of security for the nearby settlement of Ofra, Shay Ben-Yosef.

Worst in 20 Years

The shootings occurred in Betin, which is 10 miles north of Jerusalem.

Many of the 65,000 Jewish settlers who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip carry weapons. About 1.5 million Palestinians live in the territories, which Israel captured from Egypt and Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. The rioting there is the worst in 20 years.

Soldiers shot another Palestinian dead in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis today when he tried to jump a trooper and seize his automatic rifle, the army said.

Also today, soldiers in the West Bank clashed with about 20 Arab women waving black armbands and shouting slogans at a U.N. office in the Kalandia refugee camp. The soldiers used rifle butts to prod the women into the U.N. compound and away from the main road. Tear gas was fired to disperse the demonstrators.