Three More Palestinians Slain; Police Rush Temple Mount Area

Israeli police firing rubber bullets and wielding clubs injured several rock-throwing Palestinians on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Friday, and the army shot dead three Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Paramilitary police stormed the Temple Mount area to disperse hundreds of Palestinians carrying black flags and chanting nationalist slogans after they began stoning a police station beside an Islamic shrine, the Al Aqsa mosque.

At least three demonstrators were treated for gunshot wounds, and five police officers were injured by flying stones, officials said.

The army said soldiers shot and killed a 28-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank village of Idna, near Hebron, after he attacked soldiers with a club.

In the Gaza Strip, it said a 22-year-old man from the village of Bani Souhaila died of gunshot wounds. Soldiers wounded 10 Arabs at the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, and U.N. officials reported 18 injured by rubber bullets or beatings.

Israel Radio said another Palestinian man was killed when soldiers opened fire in Khan Yunis.

The deaths brought to at least 159 the number of Palestinians killed in the nearly four-month-old uprising in the occupied territories. Two Israelis have also died.

The demonstrations marked the start of “eight days of anger” called by underground leaders of the uprising over the assassination of Khalil Wazir, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s military commander. Wazir was killed in Tunis last Saturday by commandos said to be Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes Friday attacked Palestinian guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon. Israel said the planes scored accurate hits on targets north of Sidon and returned safely.