Israelis Wound 8 Palestinians, Impose Curfew in Nablus Area

Israeli troops shot and wounded eight Palestinians on Monday during an Arab strike in the occupied territories and imposed a curfew on 120,000 residents in and around Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank.

The curfew followed the overnight killing of a Palestinian by Israeli troops at the Askar camp in the Nablus area.

Troops wounded three Palestinians in separate clashes at the Tulkarm refugee camp and the West Bank towns of Zawiyeh and Qalqiliya, hospital officials and security sources said.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, troops shot and slightly wounded five Palestinians during clashes with stone-throwers in the Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Shati refugee camps, a spokesman at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital said.

Bus Stoned, Teen Shot

In addition, Palestinians said a Jewish civilian shot a 16-year-old after youths stoned a bus outside the Nur esh Shams camp near Tulkarm.

At the Askar camp, Palestinians said Ahmed Sharnoubi, 22, whose death hospital officials attributed to wounds in the chest and back, had been shot without provocation by plainclothes Israelis who came to the camp to make arrests.

The army, which said it was investigating the cause of the shooting, imposed the curfew to prevent protests after the incident and during a strike called by underground leaders of the Arab uprising in the occupied territories. More than 230 Palestinians and three Israelis have died in the eight-month-old uprising.

Beyond the restrictions in the Nablus area, curfews were also imposed on the Tulkarm and Amari camps in the West Bank and the Bureij camp in Gaza, the army said.

General Strike Observed

In Jerusalem and Ramallah, Palestinians observed a general strike Monday. Traffic was very light, shops were shuttered and few Palestinians went to work in Israel.

Leaders of the uprising called the strike to protest raids by Israeli tax collectors, who confiscate identity cards or merchants’ stock to force Palestinians to pay taxes.

Meanwhile, four Palestinians from Janin in the West Bank were remanded in custody for 15 days on suspicion of throwing a grenade in a Haifa shopping center that wounded 25 people Saturday night, and the Palestinian guerrilla group led by Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for the bombing.