Israel Hunts Uprising’s Hard Core

Israel’s security forces are hunting 700 Palestinians who they believe are the hard core of the uprising in the occupied territories, the army’s chief of staff said Tuesday.

The wanted men are known in army slang as “bingos” because their identity card numbers are issued in long lists to troops in the occupied territories.

Chief of Staff Dan Shomron told Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee at a closed hearing that the army and secret police are concentrating on rounding up those who enforce the 20-month-old revolt against Israeli rule, participants said.

The wanted men are members of so-called strike forces that attack Arabs accused of collaborating with Israel, distribute leaflets and write graffiti to spread the orders of the uprising’s leadership.

In other developments Tuesday, Palestinian sources said that masked Arab youths beat to death a Gaza Strip resident accused of working with Israeli authorities, and Israeli media reported that the government has begun using helicopters to track down wanted Palestinians in remote villages and mountain hide-outs in the occupied West Bank.