3 Palestinians Killed; Unrest in 15th Week

Three more Palestinians were shot to death and at least 10 were wounded Wednesday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as anti-Israeli violence in the occupied territories entered its 15th week.

The most serious clashes were in Gaza and the northern part of the West Bank, around Janin and Tulkarm, although an Israeli bus was stoned near Bethlehem and troops clashed with refugees at the Jalazoun camp, just north of Ramallah.

Meanwhile, in the latest of a series of restrictions meant to hobble organizers of the unrest and discourage their supporters, Israeli authorities imposed severe limits on the amount of money Arab travelers can bring across the two open bridges that link Jordan with the West Bank.

Security sources said the new rules, which prohibit travelers from bringing in more than the equivalent of about $1,200, are intended to stop the flow of money to the occupied territories from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The PLO has taken an increasingly important role in organizing the unrest and is said to have raised as much as $75 million to help support it. Some of the money, according to Palestinian sources, is meant to aid families of people imprisoned or killed in the disturbances and striking merchants and workers.

Speaking to Israeli high school students Wednesday, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin pledged to “use whatever measures we find necessary within the law” to stop the unrest, which has continued virtually unabated since Dec. 9.

Earlier this week the authorities halted most fuel deliveries to the West Bank, imposed a nightly curfew on all 650,000 residents of the Gaza Strip, banned Palestinian travel between the West Bank and Gaza and severed international telephone links to the territories.

Other Measures Weighed

Security sources hinted Wednesday that Israel is ready to impose many additional forms of collective punishment if the measures already taken do not succeed. These might include total closure of the bridges to Jordan, widespread power cutoffs in the territories and disruption of local as well as international telephone service, the sources said.

Despite the new restrictions, Palestinians in the territories carried out a general strike Wednesday in response to a call in the latest leaflet distributed by the clandestine Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories.

Stores were reported shuttered throughout most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, public transportation ceased and thousands of workers stayed home from their jobs in Israel proper.

The casualties brought to at least 94 the number of Palestinians killed in 14 weeks of violence. Most have been killed by army gunfire, although several were shot by Israeli civilians and two were slain by other Arabs as collaborators.

The unofficial tally does not include more than a score of other Palestinians alleged to have died from tear-gas asphyxiation and other unrest-related causes.

The army confirmed that serious clashes took place Wednesday between troops and demonstrators at the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm and at Yabad.

Palestinian sources said that Omar Yassin Hamarsheh, 25, died from a bullet in the chest in the Yabad incident. The army said that one Palestinian was wounded.

The army said it is still investigating a report that Ashra Mahmoud Ibrahim, 15, was shot to death at Nur Shams in clashes in which it acknowledged that seven people were wounded.

Palestinian sources said a 60-year-old man died of tear-gas suffocation during the incident, but the army quoted hospital sources as saying that his death was caused by a heart attack.

A military spokesman said the army is looking into the circumstances of the death of Hisham Daoud, 19, from the village of Nazlat Issa, also near Tulkarm. He reportedly was shot in the neck and died instantly.