2 Arab Girls Die of Wounds After Israeli Troop Clashes

Two Palestinian girls died Saturday from bullet wounds suffered in earlier clashes with Israeli soldiers, and troops wounded at least 19 other Arabs in scattered violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, hospital and army officials said.

Rana Al-Masri, 14, died at a hospital in Arab East Jerusalem, one week after she was shot during a clash between stone-throwing youths and soldiers in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, the army said. Arab reports said she had been shot in the head with a plastic bullet.

Later in the day, police in East Jerusalem fired tear gas to disperse Arab stone throwers.

In Nablus, merchants and residents called a general strike to mourn the girl’s death, Palestinian sources said, while Arab students staged a protest march. No one was injured, the sources added.

A second Palestinian girl, Hanadi Abu Sultan, 12, died at a hospital near Tel Aviv after troops shot her in the head four days ago in a clash at the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the military command said.

Mostly Teen-Agers

Arab hospital officials reported 16 Palestinians wounded in clashes with troops Saturday in the West Bank cities of Rafah and Nablus and in the Gaza Strip. Most of the wounded reportedly were teen-agers.

Two of the Arabs wounded were hit by army gunfire when stone-throwing youths confronted soldiers in Bethlehem, according to Arab sources. One of them was a 14-year-old boy who was wounded in the leg by live ammunition, they said.

The army confirmed seven wounded in Rafah and Nablus, plus three in Bethlehem, but gave no details.

In an apparent effort to prevent further disturbances, the army clamped a curfew on Shati, a beachside shantytown in Gaza City housing about 42,000 Palestinians. Curfews also went into effect in Rafah, Deir al Balah and Nusseirat camps, all in the Gaza Strip. The three have a combined population of almost 100,000.

In the West Bank, troops were maintaining curfews in Tulkarm and the Dahaisha refugee camp, near Bethlehem, an army spokesman said.

In other developments, merchants in the Gaza Strip continued a commercial strike that began Friday to protest tough Israeli tax policies. Non-payment of taxes is a major tactic of the revolt against Israeli occupation.

Arab shops have been raided and merchants cannot leave Gaza without proof they have paid all their taxes, Palestinians said.