Four Palestinians Killed, 35 Hurt in Occupied Areas

Four Palestinians were killed Saturday and 35 were injured in some of the bloodiest outbreaks of anti-Israeli violence in the occupied territories, according to Arab and Israeli reports.

The army confirmed four dead and nine wounded. It said two Palestinians were killed in clashes with soldiers in the occupied Gaza Strip. The bodies of two others found in Gaza were apparently killed after being suspected of collaborating with Israel, Arab reports and Israeli media said.

After new unrest erupted, Israeli authorities imposed curfews on all refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and on several towns, affecting 400,000 Gaza residents.

About 400 Palestinians have been killed in the 15-month uprising against Israeli rule. Fifteen Israelis also have died.

Also Saturday, about 60 Israeli peace activists, including three rabbis, traveled to the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, where they discussed peace with dozens of Palestinians over plates of chicken and salad, witnesses said.

The activists of the “Peace Now” movement said they sought to prove “dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians is possible when the government and the army do not interfere.”

The body of one alleged collaborator, Jamel Abdel Hamid Nadi, was found Saturday behind a school in Gaza City’s Rimal Quarter with multiple stab wounds and signs of beatings, Arab reports said.

The reports said graffiti reportedly scribbled on a wall near Nadi’s home and signed by an Islamic fundamentalist group, claimed he had been killed for cooperating with the Israelis.

The other body, found in Rafah in southern Gaza, was identified as Subhi Hamdan Elsoufi, 21. Arab reports said Elsoufi was killed as a collaborator.

Israel television and radio also said both were killed on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

But the army denied either were collaborators and said that an investigation into their deaths showed “the men were killed as a result of an internal feud of a criminal nature.”

The two other deaths were in Rafah and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, where soldiers opened fire on stone-throwing protesters, fatally wounding Ashraf Abu Jazar, 17, and Adli Erbea, 22, Arab reports said.

It was one of the highest daily casualty tolls in the rebellion .