U.N. Report Charges Abuses in Occupied Areas

A U.N. report released Friday decried what it termed growing human rights abuses and frequent use of violence by Israeli soldiers fighting the Palestinian rebellion.

Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar wrote in the U.N. review: “The overall situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has worsened. Civilian deaths and injuries continue to be widespread and so do other serious violations of human rights.”

He said he was “deeply distressed” by the high number of casualties and by Israeli measures such as deportation, administrative detention, curfews and razing of houses. He said such measures can only aggravate tension.

Nearly 300 Palestinians have died in the uprising that began against Israeli rule last Dec. 9 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel seized from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.

The U.N. Center for Human Rights put together the report from news items in newspapers. Israeli officials have not yet made a decision on a request by U.N. officials to visit the occupied territories.

No Comment From Israel

A spokeswoman for Israel’s U.N. mission said there would be no immediate comment.

In Tripoli, Libya, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi on Friday to discuss the declaration of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories, Libya’s official news agency JANA reported. The report was monitored in Rome.

The Palestine National Council, the PLO’s nominal legislature, declared the state this month.