Palestinian Woman and Son Killed by Firebomb

A firebomb apparently aimed at Israeli soldiers hit an Arab car Sunday and killed a Palestinian woman and her son. A third Arab died of gunshot wounds suffered during a clash with Israeli troops.

In a weekend of scattered clashes, three Arab teen-agers were wounded by army gunfire, and an Israeli man was seriously burned and his dog killed in a firebombing, hospital and military officials said.

In Arab East Jerusalem, schools reopened Sunday after being shut for nearly four months because of the Palestinian uprising. City officials said 10,000 out of 16,000 pupils attended classes at 31 schools.

Schools in the West Bank, closed by Israeli officials who said they had become centers of anti-Israel protests, will begin reopening in stages starting today.

Shamseh Kadah, 65, and her son Mohammed Salah Ghanem, 36, died when their car blew up at the entrance to Shuweika, a village of 1,500 Palestinians about 65 miles northwest of Jerusalem, hospital officials and witnesses said.

Arab villagers and military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a firebomb appeared to have been aimed at an Israeli army jeep traveling in front of the Arab-owned automobile.

Israel Radio and an official at Israel’s Abu Kabir Pathological Institute, where the bodies were taken for autopsies, said the explosion was caused by a firebomb.

The army said it was investigating and would not comment further.

Villagers in Shuweika said the incident occurred after soldiers detained Arab men and boys in a schoolyard to check identity cards.

In the Tulkarm refugee camp on the West Bank, residents held a mock funeral Sunday for Kawtha Khaled Marai, 23, who was shot and killed Saturday. Palestinian sources said the woman was shot inside her house while Israeli soldiers and demonstrators clashed outside.

The army said the circumstances of the woman’s death were under investigation. Israeli soldiers used live ammunition to break up the mock funeral. No injuries were reported.

More than 180 Palestinians have been killed since the anti-Israel uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip began Dec. 9. Two Israelis, a teen-ager and a soldier, also have been killed.

In other weekend clashes, an Israeli man, Yaacov Askayo of Jerusalem, suffered serious burns when his car was hit by a firebomb as he drove through the West Bank city of Jericho, the army said.

Violence also broke out in the West Bank’s largest city, Nablus. Soldiers shot and wounded two 19-year-old Arabs after hundreds of protesters pelted troops with stones on an avenue recently renamed for slain Palestine Liberation Organization leader Khalil Wazir.