Curfews Imposed on Gaza Strip Camps

The Israeli army clamped curfews Friday on 180,000 Arabs living in Gaza Strip refugee camps to prevent violence after activists called a general strike to mark the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Lebanon.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, troops fired at Palestinian stone throwers, critically wounding a 14-year-old boy, hospital officials said. The army said it was checking the report.

Leaders of the uprising called a general strike for today to mark the sixth anniversary of the slayings of hundreds of Palestinians by Israeli-allied Christian militiamen in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla. In response, the army imposed indefinite curfews on the Gaza Strip refugee camps of Bureij, Jabaliya, Nusseirat, Khan Yunis and Shati. Four West Bank villages also were under curfew.

In southern Lebanon, troops fatally shot three Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas who the army said planned to attack border settlements in northern Israel. The three belonged to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, the largest in the PLO, Israel Radio said. A patrol spotted the guerrillas on the northern slopes of Mt. Dov and opened fire, the army said. The clash was inside Israel’s self-proclaimed security zone.