Palestinian Protests Stepped Up : Shultz Visit This Week Rekindles Demonstrations

Two Palestinians were shot to death and at least seven others were wounded Sunday as residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip stepped up their anti-Israeli protests in connection with the planned visit to the region this week by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Israel Radio reported that hundreds of police reinforcements continued to stream into the Jerusalem area to try to head off demonstrations among Arab residents of the city and of the surrounding villages and refugee camps during Shultz’s visit.

The American official is tentatively scheduled to arrive here Thursday to begin a visit of at least five days to the region, during which he hopes to achieve a breakthrough in the search for Middle East peace. Shultz is expected to make day trips to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia while maintaining a shuttle headquarters here in Jerusalem.

Death Toll Now 59

Shultz’s initiative is in response to rioting that has rocked the occupied territories since early December, leaving at least 59 Palestinians dead, hundreds wounded by gunfire, and hundreds of others imprisoned or hospitalized with injuries from army beatings.

No Israelis have died in the nearly 11 weeks of violence, although scores of security people, mostly soldiers, have been injured, and at least two Jewish settlers have been seriously hurt by rocks and firebombs.

A leaflet circulated Sunday by the so-called Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories called on Palestinians to mark the Shultz visit with a series of daily strikes, demonstrations and other forms of protest.

“Let us increase the occupation’s political, moral and economic losses and remember that the Vietnamese won their war against the Americans not only with guns but also through the struggle of their peasants,” the leaflet said.

Believed Linked to PLO

The shadowy Unified National Leadership, thought to be dominated by the Palestine Liberation Organization, has appeared to take an increasingly important role in shaping the continuing unrest since the beginning of the year.

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and other security officials have said that the unrest was spontaneous at its outbreak on Dec. 9. Since then, however, the influence of organized troublemakers has become evident.

The latest leaflet was the eighth in a series distributed by the underground Palestinian group since it announced its formation Jan. 4. It functions as a steering committee and is said to include members of five different Palestinian factions.

Not Terrorism, Rabin Says

Despite the growing role of the PLO, which Israeli leaders routinely describe as a terrorist organization, Rabin told a branch meeting of his Labor Alignment political bloc Sunday that the current unrest is not terrorism. Not one bullet has been fired from the Arab side, he stressed.

Israel Radio quoted the defense minister as saying that the trouble cannot be resolved by force alone--that a political solution is needed.

Earlier Sunday, Rabin had described the unrest at the regular meeting of the Israeli Cabinet as “a confrontation between two national units” which promises no quick solutions.

Sunday’s fatal victims of that confrontation were both from the West Bank of the Jordan River.

In one incident, according to an army spokeswoman, three youths armed with knives attacked a soldier in the casbah in Nablus, the largest city on the West Bank. When other troops moved to rescue the slightly wounded soldier, a car tried to run them down, and the unit commander fired two shots toward the vehicle, killing one Palestinian and wounding a second.

The nationalistic Palestine Press Service identified the dead man as Raghib Suleiman abu Amarah, 24, and it said that his funeral triggered further anti-Israeli demonstrations in Nablus that lasted into the evening.

Palestinian Killed

Another Palestinian was shot to death Sunday in the Arab village of Deir Ammar, about eight miles northwest of Ramallah, an army spokeswoman confirmed. However, she said the circumstances of the incident were still unclear. Israel Radio suggested that the man, identified by the Palestine Press Service as Kamal Fares, 24, may have been killed by West Bank Jewish settlers.

The army said that three Palestinians were also wounded in a clash with troops in Qabatiya, just south of Janin, and that three more were hurt during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.

In what they described as an unrest-related incident, Palestinian sources said that a 60-year-old Nablus man died Sunday either from a heart attack or tear gas inhalation. There have been at least a half-dozen such deaths since the trouble began, although those casualties are not included in the total of at least 59 fatalities directly related to the unrest.