Israelis Kill 2 Arabs in Clashes on Anniversary of Beirut Massacre

Israeli troops killed two Arabs and wounded dozens more in clashes in the occupied territories Saturday, the sixth anniversary of a massacre of Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps.

At least 40 Palestinians were wounded, most of them in the West Bank, where Israeli forces raided towns, villages and refugee camps and arrested more than 200 suspected activists, security sources said.

Trouble spots were closed to journalists, and 400,000 Palestinians in both territories were put under curfew.

Palestinians staged a general strike throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in memory of the day when Israeli-backed Lebanese Christian militiamen killed several hundred Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps of Beirut in 1982, three months after Israeli forces invaded Lebanon.

In a rare display of unity, the anniversary was marked by both Islamic militants and secular leaders of a nine-month-old Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza, and residents of the territories said the strike was more widely observed than previous such events.

Security sources said troops in the West Bank town of Janin shot to death 17-year-old Imad Arkamwi on Saturday and wounded another five Arabs.

Palestinian sources said soldiers in a village near Nablus killed Munjed Ismael Sirhan with a shot through the neck when stone-throwing villagers attacked an army patrol.

At least 240 Palestinians and three Israeli Jews have been killed in the uprising against Israel’s occupation of the territories.

The army imposed curfews on parts of Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, on Tulkarm, the Kalandiyeh refugee camp and on a number of smaller villages, Palestinian sources said.

The 50,000 residents of Qalqiliya, released from an eight-day curfew Wednesday, were once again ordered confined to their homes after troops shot two Arab protesters there.

Meanwhile, Israeli military authorities banned the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Fajr from the West Bank and Gaza for 45 days for publishing a cartoon equating Jews with Nazis.

Military sources said the newspaper had not submitted the cartoon to army censorship.

It was the fourth time Al Fajr, which has a circulation of less than 3,000, has been punished this year.