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4 Die, 50 Hurt as Palestinians Defy Israeli Ban

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Times Staff Writer

In one of the most violent days since the Palestinian uprising began, protesters throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday defied an unprecedented closure order and clashed with Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians and the wounding of 50 others.

Army troops and protesters fought at more than 20 locations, a military spokesman said. Hospital sources said five of the wounded were in critical condition.

The West Bank military commander, Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, said the unusually high number of casualties occurred because “we were prepared.” He said the soldiers “reacted quickly and firmly” to the demonstrations.

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Press Service Closed

In a related action, Mitzna ordered the pro-nationalist Palestine Press Service closed for six months, cutting off a key source of non-official information about the territories used by about 50 news organizations.

In Israel proper, meanwhile, tens of thousands of Arabs living as citizens within the country’s pre-1967 borders expressed solidarity with Palestinians in the territories at unusually large but peaceful Land Day rallies.

Land Day commemorates the slaying of six Arabs by Israeli troops in 1976 during protests against government confiscation of Arab lands in northern Israel. But this year, organizers expressed support as well for the national aspirations of their fellow Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories had called in underground leaflets for “huge demonstrations against the army and settlers” to mark the occasion.

Widespread Arrests

The army reacted with a widespread campaign of arrests and an unprecedented order designating the occupied territories as a closed military zone for a 72-hour period that began Monday night. The closure order effectively restricts more than 1.4 million Palestinians to their homes in the Gaza Strip or to their towns and villages in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in an Israeli television interview Tuesday night that more than 4,400 Palestinians are being detained in connection with the continuing unrest, including at least 1,000 arrested in the last week.

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The army said Monday that the extraordinary restrictions were meant “to maintain law, order and security” in the face of the underground call, and Rabin characterized Land Day as a test of strength between the army and the Arab populace.

A senior military source rejected suggestions Wednesday that the unusually high casualties represented a failure of the army’s tactics.

“Compared to what was expected and what was planned, if we hadn’t taken those measures it could have been much worse,” the source said. Asked what the military had expected, he replied, “A major uprising in the territories, combined with its effect on Israel and what would have happened in the (Israeli) Arab sector.”

The authorities were concerned that violence in the territories might spill over the so-called Green Line defining Israel’s pre-1967 borders and exacerbate tension in the 700,000-member Israeli Arab community. A key goal of the closure order was to prevent contacts among Palestinians in the territories, as well as between them and the Israeli Arabs.

“It would have been much worse if it was possible for them to connect between the various areas,” the military source said.

Mitzna said in an Israel Radio interview that “it’s too early to sum up these days and to learn the lessons from these days.” However, he added, a lesson he hopes the residents of the territories have learned “is that we are strong-minded to deal with this violence, and we will do whatever is necessary and whatever is possible in order to stop these acts of violence.”

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117 Arab Deaths So Far

Wednesday’s deaths brought to at least 117 the number of Palestinian fatalities in the uprising. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the violence.

About 1,000 Palestinians have been wounded, mostly by army gunfire. Thousands more have required hospital treatment for beatings and other unrest-related injuries. More than 220 soldiers and 130 Israeli civilians have also been injured, mostly by stones and firebombs thrown by Palestinian protesters.

The unrest has grown progressively more violent over the last several weeks, and 80 of the Palestinian fatalities have occurred in February and March. The latest leaflet of the underground leadership called for further escalation of the attacks on soldiers and Jewish settlers.

“Your continuous giving and your valuable sacrifices for your homeland are paving the way on a daily basis for an independent Palestinian state,” the leaflet said.

An army spokeswoman said Wednesday’s disturbances were “more spread out and more violent” than what has been the norm. She said there were “many, many attacks on soldiers” and that a large number of those included the use of firebombs.

Because of the closure order in the territories, it was impossible to check independently the army’s report on the day’s disturbances. Journalists are banned from the territories without special permission from the army spokesman and without a military escort. The spokesman will grant permission to enter the areas only to correspondents who agree to serve as pool reporters for the hundreds of other journalists not allowed in.

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Israeli journalists and the Foreign Press Assn. have protested the rules, but the Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant the association an injunction that would have required open media access to the territories.

Defense officials have hinted that the closure order affecting the West Bank and Gaza Strip might be extended beyond the original 3-day period, which expires early Friday.

According to the army, one of Wednesday’s most serious incidents occurred in the village of Deir abu Mashal, about 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It said that a patrol was ambushed near the village before dawn when its jeep was disabled by rocks and nails on the main road.

Soldiers quoted by state radio said unknown assailants fired pistol shots at the patrol, which returned the fire and called for reinforcements. It is believed to be only the fourth report of Palestinian residents using firearms since the uprising began 16 weeks ago.

A search uncovered tracks leading to the village, and an army force entered to look for the alleged attackers. About 30 villagers showered them with stones, bottles and iron bars, Israel Radio reported, and one villager was chased into the courtyard of a residence.

Residents Attack Troops

According to the account, people from the residence emerged and attacked the pursuing troops with axes, garden hoes and clubs. It said that a middle-aged woman hit one of the soldiers on the head with a pickax, knocking him to the ground unconscious, and that his companions opened fire, striking the woman, her 85-year-old husband and their two sons. State radio said the woman was wounded in the legs but that when villagers interfered with attempts by army medics to treat her, she bled to death.

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Palestinian sources gave a different version of events. They said the soldiers broke into the house and shot one of the sons when he tried to run away. When the rest of the family then attacked, they too where shot, these sources said.

Hospital authorities identified the dead woman as Wajiha Yosef Rabie, 50, and said her husband and two sons were in intensive care Wednesday night.

In another incident, the army said one person was killed and 10 were wounded at Shuyukh, a village near Hebron that has been the site of at least two other violent clashes in the last four months.

Palestinian sources said 20 people were wounded in the incident, which they said began when youths stoned soldiers on the outskirts of town. Within minutes, according to this account, reinforcements arrived by helicopter and motor vehicle and charged into the town, firing at the fleeing stone throwers.

Another Palestinian was shot to death in Burqa, near Nablus, and a fourth at Deir Ibzi, outside Ramallah.

Palestinian sources identified the Burqa victim as Khaled Aref, 22, but the identities of the other dead could not be learned immediately.

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Other Clashes Reported

The army said there were also large clashes at Yamun, near Janin; Bani Naim, just east of Hebron, and the Nur esh Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm. There were injuries in at least a dozen other, smaller incidents, the army spokeswoman said.

The Palestine Press Service, which usually provides an alternative source of information from the territories, was closed by emergency army order Wednesday morning. The action was necessary, according to the decree, “for maintaining public safety and public order.”

Officials charged that the agency is funded by the “Democratic Front terror group,” a reference to the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by Nayef Hawatmeh.

Ibrahim Karaeem, a co-owner of the Palestine Press Service, denied the charge and countered that the action “is just to make the blackout on the occupied territories complete.”

The agency was founded in 1977 and has frequently run afoul of the Israeli authorities for its pro-nationalist stand. Its reports are decidedly one-sided, but they must pass through the Israeli army censor. Since the Palestinian uprising began, the service has regularly been faster than the army in advising its clients of disturbances and supplying the identities of Arab victims.

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