Arabs Stage General Strike in Occupied Areas, Protest Arrests

Palestinians staged a general strike across the Israeli-occupied territories Thursday to protest mass arrests of Arabs. In clashes with Israeli soldiers, two Arabs were shot to death and four wounded.

The strike, ordered by the underground leadership of Palestinian militants, which is allied with the Palestine Liberation Organization, was called in support of 4,800 Palestinians detained by Israeli troops since an Arab uprising began in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip last December.

Most of the 110,000 Palestinians with jobs in Israel did not show up for work Thursday. Arab shop-owners closed their doors in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.

Violence in Refugee Camps

Violence broke out Thursday in two refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and two West Bank cities, according to Arab media reports.

Wael Hassan Asmar, 24, was shot in the heart and died at Al Ittihad Hospital in Nablus, an emergency room official told a reporter.

Arab reporters said soldiers killed another Palestinian, Nassar Fahmi Lidawi, at the Nablus market. The army confirmed the death and said it was investigating the circumstances.

In nearby Tulkarm, Mohammed Fuad Taha, 12, lost his right eye after being hit with a rubber bullet, said an official at Rafidiyeh Hospital in Nablus. He said a 17-year-old was in critical condition with a stomach wound.

At Tekoa near Bethlehem, protesters burned tires and threw stones at passing vehicles, slightly injuring two Jewish children in a bus, army radio reported.

Israeli officials reported Thursday that the number and size of Arab protests is declining.

“It is clear the level of violence is less, but this doesn’t mean the uprising is over,” said Avi Pazner, an aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, army chief of staff, said protests now involve only Palestinian activists, “so when soldiers are forced to fire, they usually hit the inciters themselves.”

The director of Israel’s Government Press Office, Yoram Ettinger, said he plans to bar Palestinians from distributing press releases to foreign journalists in their mailboxes at the press office.

“Being committed to the PLO, they shouldn’t expect Israel, whom the PLO wants to destroy, to facilitate their dissemination of information,” Ettinger told the English-language Jerusalem Post.

Ettinger’s plans were protested by the Foreign Press Assn.