Israeli Troops Kill 2 Arabs in Clash With Protesters

Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday, killing two Arabs, the army said.

At least 25 protesters were wounded in the clashes, hospital officials said.

Two Israeli civilians were detained for allegedly stockpiling an arsenal of weapons intended for anti-Arab attacks, police said.

Attorney Detained

Israeli military authorities detained a prominent attorney from Gaza City, prompting an outcry from Israeli liberals.

Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, the military chief of staff, called on Israel’s leaders to reach an accord with the Arabs to end the 100-day-old uprising.

In an interview with the daily newspaper Davar, Shomron said the Israeli army “cannot endure this situation forever. The matter has to be solved.”

The latest deaths brought to 96 the number of Palestinians killed since the uprising began Dec. 9.

Protests at Refugee Camp

Protests erupted at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza after hundreds of worshipers streamed from the camp’s Al Gharbi mosque after Friday prayers and saw soldiers scuffling with three youths, witnesses said.

Troops dropped tear gas canisters from helicopters and fired rubber bullets before using live ammunition to restore order, the witnesses and the army said.

The army said that one Palestinian was killed there.

At the Ein Beit Ilmah refugee camp near Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, an Israeli soldier shot and killed a 19-year-old refugee after he attacked a soldier with “a dangerous object” during a protest, an army spokeswoman reported.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, 10 miles north of Jerusalem, troops confronted about 200 Arab youths outside Ramallah Hospital.

In an apparently new tactic, troops dumped gravel from helicopters on protesters below before using live ammunition to disperse them.

Two Palestinian men were shot and wounded. One was in serious condition with a wound to the abdomen, hospital officials said.

2 Israelis Detained

Meanwhile, two 44-year-old Israelis, identified by the Haaretz newspaper as Moshe Vinokor of Rishon Lezion and Gershon Luxemburg of Jerusalem, were detained after police discovered they had stockpiled a large arsenal of weapons, apparently for use in attacks against Arabs.

The army also rounded up scores of suspected Palestinian activists this week in a crackdown aimed at curbing riots on Land Day, a traditional Palestinian nationalist day that falls on March 30, Israel Radio and Arab reports said. The Arab-owned Palestine Press Service set the number of detainees at about 400.

Mohammed Abu Shaban, the vice president of the Gaza Bar Assn., was picked up late Thursday after participating in a gathering at Tel Aviv University protesting Israeli policies in the territories.

Abu Shaban has represented several Gazans in appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court. Tel Aviv University professors and the left-wing Citizens’ Rights Movement sent a telegram to Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin demanding his release.