Israelis Cry ‘Revenge!’ at Rites for Girl : Army Leaks Report Bullet From Guard’s Gun Was in Body

Thousands of Jewish settlers, some shouting “Revenge! Revenge!” attended the funeral today for an Israeli girl officials had said was stoned to death by Arab villagers.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir vowed to the 9,000 mourners that the killing of 15-year-old Tirza Porat will only strengthen Israel’s resolve to keep the West Bank. “The heart of all the people boils over,” he said.

Late today, the Israeli army leaked reports that a bullet was found in Porat’s body and that Palestinians did not fire weapons in the incident.

Security sources said investigators found a bullet from the same weapons that killed two Palestinians in the clash.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, shot dead a fugitive Arab suspect near the village of Beita, where the girl was killed Wednesday when Palestinian youths attacked teen-age hikers from the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh.

“God will avenge her blood,” Shamir told the mourners, most of them West Bank settlers, who thronged the Karnei Shomron cemetery.

Cries of ‘Revenge!’

Shamir’s eulogy was punctuated by cries of “Revenge!” and “Expulsions!” and calls for the dismissal of the defense minister and army chief of staff.

Troops arrested 15 residents of Beita, south of Nablus, and destroyed the houses of at least four people suspected of inciting the violence, an army spokesman said.

He said soldiers combing the hills around Beita on foot and with helicopters in search of dozens of Arabs believed to have fled overnight shot a suspect who refused to stop despite several warnings. He later died of his wounds.

Porat was the first Israeli civilian victim in the four-month Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. About 140 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died in the violence.

Area Taken in 1967

Palestinians and Jews accused each other of starting the clash in Beita. Two armed adults escorting the hikers shot two of the villagers to death on the spot. Security sources said the hikers came under attack. Palestinians denied provocation. (Story on Page 7.)

Almost 70,000 Israelis have moved into Jewish settlements among the 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since Israel captured the areas from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Yom Kippur War.

Shamir, buoyed by the support of settlers, has opposed an international conference envisaged by a U.S. Middle East peace plan. He says it would force Israel to withdraw from captured land to indefensible borders.

“These rioters, these murderers will achieve nothing. They lead their people to tragedies, to disaster,” he told the mourners, many of whom traveled the 12 miles in a thousand-car procession from Elon Moreh.

Mountain Area Searched

The cars, their headlights blazing, drove through Nablus, the biggest Arab West Bank city, on the way to the cemetery under heavy security. Soldiers used a megaphone to order residents to go home and remain inside.

There were no Arab cars on the roads.

Beita remained under curfew. Journalists, barred from entering the village, saw the dust rise from two houses as they were blown up. Soldiers said that more would be destroyed and that roads would be sealed around the village.