Israelis Accused of New Attack on Arab Hospital

Israeli troops hunting for Arab protesters stormed a hospital compound for the second straight day Wednesday and fired tear gas into the reception area of an emergency room, driving out dozens of elderly patients, doctors said.

Elsewhere, Palestinians hurled firebombs and troops fired tear gas in scattered clashes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where violent protests have occurred daily since Dec. 9. At least 76 Palestinians have been killed since then.

The second day of violence at government-run Ramallah Hospital, about eight miles north of Jerusalem, was the latest in a recent series of clashes at medical facilities in the occupied territories.

About a dozen Israeli troops arriving at the hospital were confronted by rock-hurling Palestinian protesters who blocked a street outside the building. One smoking canister of tear gas landed in the reception area of the emergency room and another landed in a hospital courtyard, doctors said.

Two physicians donned gas masks and others held onions to their noses to blunt the effects of the tear gas, one doctor said. About 30 patients, including elderly people, were driven outside.

Arab doctors say that injured Palestinians often are reluctant to come to hospitals for fear of being arrested by Israeli authorities while under treatment. But hospitals also have often become refuges for Arab demonstrators fleeing arrest after violent confrontations with soldiers.

On Tuesday, three soldiers burst into the same hospital, fired tear gas and rubber bullets and struck two doctors with their rifles as they looked for demonstrators, the Arab doctors said.

Denies Doctors Were Beaten

An army spokesman denied that soldiers entered the hospital or beat doctors. He said soldiers detained two Palestinians but that the youths were taken into custody at the entrance to the hospital.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, Shifa Hospital officials said Israeli soldiers entered the facility overnight and arrested two Arab demonstrators accused by Israel of trying to run over a soldier with a car.

Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, the armed forces chief of staff, said it was a day of relative quiet, something he attributed to the massive presence of troops. He said a withdrawal of the reinforced soldiers would spark a resumption of demonstrations, Israel Radio said.

Outside Ramallah, near the entrance of the Amari refugee camp, three members of Italy’s Parliament chained themselves to utility poles to protest Israeli policy in the territories. They were taken to a police station and then released.

In Jerusalem, 27 students from the Bezalel School of Art and Design were arrested when a school parade celebrating the Jewish festival of Purim turned into a political demonstration, police spokesman Rafi Levy said.

Police used force to break up the demonstration by dozens of students, who refused to disperse after they unfurled banners reading “Don’t Lose Your Sense of Humanity,” Levy said.

About 500 leftist Jews and Arabs rallied in front of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s office with signs reading, “Jews and Arabs Against the Occupation.”

In the Knesset, or Parliament, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin helped defeat a motion by right-wing members that would have barred the media from the West Bank and Gaza, saying such a move was illegal.

Right-wing officials have stepped up calls in the last week to bar reporters from the occupied lands, charging they have fueled the unrest.