11 Arabs Wounded as Israel Seals Territories

Troops shot and wounded 11 Palestinian protesters today when violence flared after Israel’s unprecedented closure of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for three days, Arab sources said.

The Arab-owned Palestine Press Service reported 10 demonstrators were shot in clashes in the West Bank village of Zeita, where youths barricaded streets, burned tires and threw firebombs at Israeli cars.

Elsewhere, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was taken to the Rafidiyeh hospital in Nablus after being wounded by rubber bullets, the news agency said.

The army acknowledged wounding five Arab youths with gunfire in Zeita and said three others were injured by tear gas when dozens of protesters pelted troops with projectiles.

Neither version could be checked independently because new Israeli restrictions prevent the media from entering the occupied territories.

The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, said the most severe clampdown in nearly four months of Palestinian unrest, imposed to avert rioting on a key Arab protest day Wednesday, Land Day, could remain in force beyond Friday.

Shomron said it is too early to tell whether the measures, which also ban Palestinians from leaving the occupied territories and impose a three-day curfew on the entire Gaza Strip, are working.

Areas Generally Quiet

Israel Radio said the occupied areas were generally quiet, but the Palestinian news agency said there were demonstrations in several towns and refugee camps.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir denied the closure is undemocratic, telling reporters: “The means are not important. It’s the end that matters. The aim is that these days pass as all days must--in peace and quiet.”