Advertisement

Independent State Urged by Arab Signs

Share
Associated Press

Palestinians defied official warnings Sunday and posted signs declaring support for an independent state in the occupied territories. One Palestinian was killed in a clash with soldiers.

The army kept most of the Gaza Strip’s 650,000 Palestinian residents under curfew to prevent protests during a major meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers.

Travel restrictions keeping West Bank Arabs from entering Israel were lifted, but soldiers maintained extra patrols in the territory.

Advertisement

In Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, Israeli troops patrolled streets where signs in red paint declared: “Yes to Independence, Yes to the Declaration of a Palestinian State.”

In the West Bank town of Jenin, one Arab man was killed in a clash with soldiers, a military spokesman said. He had no further details on the incident.

Arab reports said the victim, Alam Hamtouli, 27, was killed and two other men were wounded when their car was fired on as it approached an army checkpoint outside Jenin.

Advertisement