Israel Invokes Tougher Rules to Quell Unrest : Civilians Get Permission to Shoot Firebombers Without Warning; Shamir Cheered on Return

In a series of tough new measures aimed at ending the unrest in the occupied territories, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced Tuesday that Israeli civilians have the same authority as soldiers to shoot Arab firebombers, that the shops of striking Palestinian merchants will be permanently welded shut and that new procedures have been adopted for jailing alleged inciters without trial.

Speaking before a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset (Parliament), Rabin said that 3,000 Palestinians are in custody in connection with the unrest. The figure reportedly includes about 700 arrested within the last week.

Rabin spoke as Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir returned from Washington to a hero’s welcome. Thousands of right-wing supporters cheered him for standing fast against U.S. efforts to promote an international Middle East peace conference. Shamir opposes such a conference as a dangerous trap in which the participants would be aligned against Israel.

Blocks Attempts

So far, Shamir has blocked attempts by centrist partners in Israel’s coalition government to force a Cabinet vote on the U.S. peace initiative. Asked if he intends to present a motion on the plan to the government, he told reporters, “I will decide after consultations (that) I will have with the Cabinet and with the government.”

Senior ministers in the so-called Inner Cabinet are expected to discuss the issue at a meeting today.

Shamir, asked about reports that Washington plans to arrange for invitations to be issued for such a conference in order to force the hands of the various parties, replied: “It was clarified that until Israel will decide about its participation in such a conference, there will not be any invitations to the participants.”

The U.S. initiative was undertaken earlier this year in response to the unprecedented Palestinian unrest, which has rocked the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since Dec. 9. In Tuesday’s developments:

-- The army said that Hikmat Daraghmeh, 26, from the village of Tubas, near Hebron, was the latest fatal victim of the uprising--the 101st Palestinian to die as a direct result of the disturbances, according to an unofficial count.

-- An army spokesman said the bodies of two more Palestinians were found in the Gaza Strip, one Monday and the other Tuesday. He said that both are believed to have been killed in criminal incidents unrelated to the uprising. One man was found with his skull crushed near the village of Beit Hanoun; the other was shot.

The army high command, facing mounting criticism for failing to suppress the unrest, has adopted a series of tough new economic and military measures against the 1.4 million Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Nightly Curfew

Last week the authorities halted most shipments of gasoline and heating oil to the West Bank, imposed an unprecedented nightly curfew on all 650,000 residents of the Gaza Strip, banned Palestinian travel between the West Bank and Gaza and cut international telephone links to the territories. They also outlawed a Palestinian youth movement accused of instigating disturbances on behalf of the dominant Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

On Sunday, a reserve soldier was shot to death by an unknown assailant while standing guard outside a government building in Bethlehem, becoming the first Israeli soldier to die in the territories since the trouble began. Since that killing, Rabin has been even more determined to clamp down, according to Israeli security sources.

It was announced Monday that soldiers need not fire warning shots before shooting Palestinians who throw firebombs at them, and on Tuesday, the defense minister said that Israeli civilians have been authorized to do the same. Jewish settlers on the West Bank and Gaza Strip have frequently been the target of firebombs, and they are encouraged to carry weapons.

In effect, the new rules of engagement--which put firebombs in the same category as guns, grenades and other lethal weapons--require that the shooter be able to clearly identify the actual firebomber.

Senior Israeli military men have said they consider confrontations between Palestinians and Jewish settlers to be potentially more dangerous than clashes between demonstrators and soldiers because of longstanding tension between the two groups and a record of vigilante action by some settlers.

The latest leaflet of the Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories calls for residents to escalate the confrontation, “showering the occupation soldiers and the cowardly settler thugs with stones, Molotov cocktails and iron bars.”

The leaflet is dated March 19 but apparently was not distributed in Jerusalem until Monday. Security forces have reportedly raided several print shops in an effort to intercept the leaflets.

The pro-nationalist Palestine Press Service reported Tuesday that the army has ordered all printing houses in the Gaza Strip closed. It said the owners of six print shops in Tulkarm, in the northern sector of the West Bank, have been warned that they must get new permits to stay in business.

Renewable Detention

The new procedures for administrative detention of Palestinians in the territories drop a previous requirement that such an order be confirmed by a military judge within 96 hours. Under administrative detention, West Bank and Gaza Strip residents can be held for up to six months without trial. Such detention orders are renewable.

Military courts have been required to deal with more than 4,000 detentions since the unrest began. About 1,000 of those detained have since been released, but Rabin said Tuesday that 3,000 are still behind bars.

The 96-hour requirement was deemed an unnecessary strain on the military court system, even though its cancellation reportedly means the unilateral abrogation by Israel of a commitment that then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin gave to Egypt in 1979.