Israeli Troops Left Town in Shambles, Palestinians Say

The main street of this Arab village was a shambles Saturday after what residents described as a two-hour binge of indiscriminate Israeli army destruction a day earlier, in retaliation for a tire-burning and rock-throwing demonstration by village youths.

While Israeli settlers and troops have damaged Palestinian property many times before during raids and searches, the extent of the destruction here is believed to be far greater than during any similar incident since unprecedented unrest began in the occupied territories last Dec. 9.

A reporter counted more than 70 damaged properties along the mile-and-a-half length of the main street. Walls and porches were knocked down, metal storefront shutters were ripped off, stone outside staircases were collapsed, fences and trees were bulldozed and hundreds of windows were smashed.

Few buildings along the entire route appeared to have escaped serious damage. The targets included homes, stores and the town mosque, in which more than 100 window panes were broken. The glass front of a bookcase inside the mosque was also smashed and some of the books inside were torn.

The reporter saw four cars that had all their windows smashed out and six farm tractors that had been upended or toppled off the edge of the paved road onto fields 6 to 10 feet below.

An army spokesman said that according to a “very preliminary report” from units at the scene, roadblocks of stones, garbage bins and debris were thrown up by villagers during “violations of order” Friday.

“While clearing up the routes, there was damage caused to shops, stores and cars along the route,” the spokesman said, adding that a fuller investigation would be undertaken today.

The physical evidence here appeared to contradict the preliminary army account, however.

Two of the upended tractors, for example, were on private property at the end of a cul-de-sac off the main road. The metal shutters on stores, which are common on Jewish as well as Arab shops here, are mounted flush to the stone fronts of the buildings. Scores of damaged shutters had been either ripped off buildings or smashed in--damage that would be virtually impossible for a bulldozer to inflict while simply clearing the road outside.

“This is a revenge for all the villagers here,” said one resident who identified himself only as Haj Ali.

The villagers conceded that local youths had set up roadblocks and burned tires after regular Muslim prayer services at the mosque Friday. Israeli troops already stationed in a school at the edge of town because of earlier protests dispersed the demonstrators with rubber bullets and live ammunition, residents and the army spokesman agreed.

The army said that one youth was slightly wounded by gunfire. Residents claimed that eight were hurt, either by gunfire or rubber bullets.

A senior military source said that the local commander called in bulldozers after residents blocked every road in the village, creating “an operational problem” for troops on the scene. He said that it was a “last resort” and that some of the damage may have occurred because the roadblocks were removed “against active resistance.”

The source denied that the action was meant as a new form of collective punishment of the Palestinian population and said that if there was “inappropriate action or transgressions” it will come out in the investigation.

Residents said the army bulldozers smashed through protective metal shutters, partially penetrating a number of buildings, including the Beit Ummar pharmacy, a grocery store and a small local factory producing biscuits and soft drinks.

The pharmacy owner estimated damage to his establishment and its stock of merchandise at the equivalent of $6,000. A counter was smashed beneath the collapsed metal shutters and medicine cases were broken.

The gate and much of a wall surrounding the expensive, four-story home of Sami Breigeth, a merchant with business interests in Abu Dhabi, were destroyed, and a window near his front door was broken by what he said was a tear-gas canister fired at the house.

“The tractor is praying,” another resident quipped as he and a reporter passed by a vehicle resting on its large rear wheels, nose in the air against the side of a building.

At the mosque, dozens of residents swept up broken glass from the smashed window panes. Abed Rabah abu Ayash, the grizzled, 58-year-old prayer caller, carried the remains of a large clock to show a visiting reporter.

“All of it broken,” he said in broken English. He said that troops had also taken tape recordings belonging to the mosque, including readings from the Koran.

During a violent demonstration in Beit Ummar on Feb. 7, according to an army report, a caller, or muezzin, had “incited the masses via the mosque loudspeaker.” Three residents were killed and three were wounded in that incident.

In other developments related to the continuing Palestinian unrest, an army spokesman said Saturday that it is still unclear whether a 15-year-old Jewish girl killed during a clash at Beita last Wednesday had died from being hit by a stone or from a gunshot wound in the head.

Also, he said, it is still uncertain whether the bullet that struck her was fired accidentally by one of the Israeli guards accompanying the teen-agers on a hike or by Palestinian villagers who took the weapon during the incident.

The spokesman said that what is believed to be the fatal weapon was recovered Friday and that, contrary to a preliminary report by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, it still had eight rounds in the ammunition clip. Shomron had previously said that the weapon had been empty of ammunition when it was taken from the guard, lending weight to a theory that the guard had inadvertently shot the girl.

The spokesman also said that there are contradictions in accounts of the incident given by several of the teen-age hikers as well as between their accounts and those of Palestinian witnesses. Investigators have been unable to question a key source--the guard whose weapon apparently fired the fatal shot. He remains unconscious and in critical condition from head injuries suffered when the group was attacked with stones by villagers from Beita.