Palestinian Youth Killed in Attack on Israeli Jeep

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian protester Monday during fresh disturbances on the West Bank, and another Palestinian died of earlier wounds, the army said. The deaths brought to at least 76 the number of Arabs killed in violence in the Israeli-occupied territories.

In Burin, a West Bank village about 30 miles north of Jerusalem, 50 Palestinians attacked an army jeep with stones and iron bars, the army said. The report said soldiers first fired tear gas and rubber bullets, then used live ammunition. Yasser Daoud Eid, 18, was fatally shot in the neck, an army spokesman said.

The second death Monday was of Mahmoud Batwi, 30, who died of a gunshot wound to the head suffered Thursday during a protest in Janin, a West Bank town.

Meanwhile, two Jewish settlers suspected of killing two Arabs on Saturday were freed on bail. Also released were four soldiers who were shown in a CBS News videotape beating two Palestinians for more than half an hour near Nablus last week. Authorities said investigations would continue in both cases.

The settlers, Hananiya Schneider, 45, and Moshe Bahagon, 37, were released on bail of about $1,500 each.

They are suspected of killing two Palestinians in Abud, an Arab village about 10 miles northwest of Ramallah in the West Bank, after their car was reportedly stoned while driving through the town.

Meanwhile, three soldiers went on trial in a Jaffa military court for allegedly burying alive four Palestinian protesters in the West Bank village of Kfar Salim on Feb. 5. All three were charged with aggravated assault and battery.

The four Arabs were rescued by fellow villagers.

Under increasing pressure from right-wing members of the government to use harsher measures to quell the Palestinian riots, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said the majority of the Israeli Cabinet favored barring reporters from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Appearing before the Foreign Press Assn., Rabin said that members of the right-wing Likud Bloc told him that reporters, chiefly television crews, were fueling the unrest.