West Bank Youth Slain; Merchants’ Trial Delayed

Isaeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian youth in the occupied West Bank on Thursday as hundreds of teen-agers clashed with troops, the army said.

A military spokesman said the fatality occurred when hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinians descended on an army patrol in the village of Malek near Ramallah.

When a youth threw a firebomb at the troops, soldiers opened fire, killing a Palestinian, the spokesman said. He said several Palestinians were arrested.

The death brings the toll in the Palestinian uprising to at least 167 Palestinians and two Israelis.

Meanwhile, a court postponed the trial of 14 Arab shopkeepers accused of striking in violation of army orders. They had been scheduled to go on trial Thursday for obeying a strike call by uprising leaders. The trial was postponed when the Jerusalem shopkeepers’ lawyer asked to consult the government’s legal adviser.

Arab reporters said that bakers and street vendors, who usually operate during strikes, heeded the latest call and virtually closed down the occupied territories and Arab East Jerusalem.

Underground Palestinian leaders called the strike in a bulletin issued last week, and it appeared to be as widespread as dozens of others since the 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied lands began what even the Israelis now call the intafada --the uprising.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, a Palestinian was seriously injured when a bodyguard of Israeli-appointed Mayor Abdel Maguid Zir fired into a crowd demanding his resignation, Arab sources said.

The clandestine leadership of the uprising has demanded that all Palestinian officials working for the Israelis resign.