Dozens of Arabs Will Be Freed, Israeli General Says

The Israeli commander of the occupied West Bank said Friday that several dozen detained Palestinians would be released this weekend.

Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, head of the army’s central command, said in an interview with Israeli Arabic television:

“I intend to release in the coming days all youths up to the age of 16, not including those who have committed serious offenses.”

Mitzna said the release was aimed to coincide with the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

About 3,000 Palestinians remain in detention since the beginning of a four-month-old uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mitzna also said curfews at the West Bank refugee camps of Jalazoun and Balata would be removed in time for Ramadan.

“We will remove the curfews . . . in the hopes that this message will be understood, and that this month will pass according to the customs and traditions, and in the hope that the violence will stop,” Mitzna said.

Meanwhile, a convoy of cars carrying scores of Israeli settlers drove through the volatile West Bank area where a 15-year-old Jewish girl was killed on April 6 and put up a sign in her memory on Friday.

The heavily guarded convoy, including several settlers from the hometown of slain Tirza Porat, toured the area around Beita, the town where she was killed. First reports said she was stoned to death by Arab villagers, but a subsequent Israeli army report said that she was shot in the head, apparently by an Israeli guard accompanying a group of hikers, which included Porat.

The settlers drove from Karnei Shomron, where Porat is buried, to the crossroads in front of Beita and erected a sign that read, “Tirza Crossroads.”

There were no incidents reported at Beita and most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was reported calm on Friday. But in the West Bank town of Nablus, about 250 demonstrators, waving the outlawed PLO flag, clashed with troops outside the mosque after prayers on the Muslim Sabbath. Disturbances also broke out Friday outside mosques in Ramallah and Al Birah and in villages around Ramallah. No injuries or arrests were reported.

In the Gaza Strip, a 13-year-old boy from Beit Hanoun was wounded by gunfire of unknown origin, Israel Radio reported. Officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said he was in critical condition.