3 Arabs Die in New Clash on W. Bank : Earlier Wounds Fatal to 2 Others as Strife Intensifies

Three more Palestinian demonstrators were shot to death by Israeli soldiers Sunday and two others died of earlier wounds in continuing violence that showed signs of acceleration by both sides.

Since the unrest started nearly two months ago, the number of Palestinians killed by the army now totals at least 46, with hundreds of others wounded by live ammunition or rubber bullets and beatings. The injured included at least 25 treated in hospitals Sunday with bullet wounds.

Any thought that the violence might be abating was set aside during Sunday’s regular Israeli Cabinet meeting. According to government officials, the reports given to the Cabinet by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and police and army officials were “gloomy and pessimistic.”

For the first time since the uprising started Dec. 9, the official said, no responsible Cabinet minister gave “even a hint” that the situation is calming down.

Sunday’s developments were a further indication of the growing disregard by the mostly youthful protesters of the military’s customary tactic of using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrations and of the increasing willingness of the army to counter the unrest with the use of deadly force.

In addition, the circumstances of many of Sunday’s incidents showed that the real or imagined role of Jewish settlers on the West Bank in fueling the unrest is becoming more serious.

There were intense clashes between protesters and the army throughout the West Bank, with lesser confrontations reported in the Gaza Strip and a resumption, ordered by the Palestinians’ central command organization, of a total commercial strike by Palestinian merchants and workers.

No Longer Spontaneous

A total strike, as well as major demonstrations, were called for in a leaflet distributed Thursday by the coalition of Islamic and political groups calling itself the Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories--again showing that the disturbances, while they began as spontaneous protests, are now being directed and controlled in a convincing fashion by a central leadership.

The three Palestinians killed Sunday fell in the climax of a two-hour confrontation between a dozen or so soldiers and a large number of residents of this Arab village about seven miles north of Hebron.

The three were identified as Imad Sabarney, 22; Mohammed Sheweiha, 21, and Tayssir Jarad, 18. Accounts of the incident in which they died given by residents and by the army were almost diametrically opposed.

According to an army officer on the scene, about a dozen soldiers on patrol on the road that leads from the main Jerusalem-Hebron highway into Beit Ummar were attacked by a group of rock- and bottle-throwing demonstrators so large that he described it as “a river of people.”

“We did not start it, but they kept coming toward the main highway and we could not let them cut off that road,” the officer said, declining to give his name.

“We used tear gas and rubber bullets but they surrounded the patrol and it was clear our men were in danger, so they had to use live ammunition. I don’t know how they were killed; that is being investigated.”

Angry, shouting Palestinians insisted just after the shooting had dispersed the crowd that the root of the trouble was a report Saturday night by the army, saying that residents of nearby Jewish settlements might raid the village. According to several of the townspeople, the army “said we should be alert and they would protect us.”

‘Shooting in the Air’

By their account, most of the villagers stayed up through the night, built barricades on the road and prepared to defend the village. However, they said, the army arrived in the morning “and began shooting in the air.”

Urged to resist by Muslim leaders using loudspeakers in the local mosque, the mob answered with a barrage of rocks, and the confrontation began. It ended just over two hours later, and the three dead men were buried in a cemetery with soldiers looking on from beneath a sign that read in English “Welcome to Beit Ummar.”

The army officer said there were no Jewish settlers at Beit Ummar, and residents of Kiryat Arba, a nearby settlement, denied in telephone interviews that they had been involved.

Gasoline Bombs

However, a perception that Jewish settlers are becoming more active in retaliating against constant stone-throwing and occasional tossing of gasoline bombs at settlers’ cars has touched off a growing number of riotous episodes throughout the occupied territories.

An Arab woman killed Saturday night at an Arab refugee camp north of Hebron was caught up in a disturbance that began after rumors spread that Jewish settlers or members of the radically anti-Arab Kach movement led by Rabbi Meir Kahane were attacking Palestinian camps and villages.

There were reports, which the army said it could not confirm, that Kach members were calling various camps and threatening the residents. Kahane is a proponent of evicting the entire West Bank Arab population to Arab nations in the region.

As part of its effort to isolate the troubles and press the Palestinians to drop their protests, the army has imposed curfews on refugee camps, villages and cities holding at least 160,000 residents. Some areas have now been under curfew for 10 days, meaning the people cannot leave for work nor leave their homes to obtain food. Their only supplies come from U.N. relief workers, who complain that the military frequently obstructs their movements.

Doesn’t Seem to Work

But the tactic doesn’t seem to work. At the Jalazone refugee camp just north of Ramallah, a curfew was lifted Sunday morning after seven days of total curfew. However, by 10 a.m., young men and teen-agers were gathering in the squalid camp center and preparing a demonstration.

“Today is just for breath catching,” said one man as his friends began gathering the huge stones, tires and other debris used to block the road and attack the army. “We’ll be closed again before the end of the day.”

Ramallah Protests

The constancy of the demonstrations was in evidence in Ramallah, a wealthy city of about 30,000 mostly Christian Palestinians a half-hour’s drive north of Jerusalem where barricades, tire-burning and rock-throwing are daily events.

Sundays have a slightly different character because the protests follow and seem to be inspired by the church sermons of the priests at the Greek Orthodox, Anglican and Roman Catholic services.

This Sunday, the first of what turned out to be a day of scattered demonstrations and scrimmages with the army came as about 200 people marched out of the Greek Orthodox Church, chanting Palestinian slogans demanding an end to the occupation and an independent Palestinian state.

As they marched toward the center of the city, youths with kaffiyehs-- Arab headdresses--covering their faces, pulled large stones into the street and began amassing arsenals of rocks and bottles.

As if on signal and within five minutes, Israeli troops rushed into the area. Rocks were thrown, tear gas and rubber bullets fired and the place was chaos.

Rock Thrower Arrested

At one point, soldiers broke their way into a house and arrested a middle-aged man dressed in a long nightshirt. One officer said he had been throwing rocks.

By the end of the afternoon, Ramallah hospitals said they had treated nine people for tear gas and rubber bullet injuries.

Further agitating the unrest throughout the West Bank was news that two people, including a 10-year-old boy, had died during the day from earlier injuries.

Tamer Jalal Souki, 10, from Burka, died at the Hashomar Hospital in Tel Aviv of injuries suffered Feb. 2 during a disturbance near his home. And a 15-year old boy, Rami Aklouk of Deir al Balah, died at the Maqassed Hospital after being severely beaten on the head during a protest Saturday at his Gaza Strip village.

As the day faded into night, police reported several incidents in Jerusalem, including an attack by Palestinians against the Jewish neighborhood of Newe Yaakov, which had to be repelled by tear gas fired from helicopters.