Palestinian Youth, 13, Killed; 3 Suspected Collaborators Slain

Israeli soldiers fatally shot a 13-year-old Palestinian during a stone-throwing protest Friday, and three Arabs suspected of collaborating with Israeli authorities were found dead in the occupied territories.

Also Friday, a Syrian-backed Palestinian faction claimed responsibility for firing rockets across the Jordanian border into Israel a day earlier.

In the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, troops clashed with stone-throwers and Akran Zaki Hamdan, 13, was killed, the army and hospital officials said.

Underground Appeal

The slayings of the three Arabs came despite an appeal by underground uprising leaders in their latest leaflet. They asked Palestinian activists not to be too quick to kill suspected collaborators.

Concern about security on the usually quiet Israel-Jordan border rose this week following the rocket attack Thursday and a guerrilla attack five days earlier in which two Israeli soldiers were killed.

Zeev Schiff, a military analyst for the daily newspaper Haaretz, said Syria may be using the border attacks to punish Jordan’s King Hussein for allowing Iraq to move weapons through Jordan to Christian forces in Lebanon. The Christians are battling Syria’s army.

Schiff also said that the Syrians “are trying to stir up trouble” between Israel and Jordan.

In the occupied territories Friday, 14 Palestinians were shot and wounded in stone-throwing clashes with Israeli troops, including an 11-year-old boy hit in the head by a bullet in the West Bank village of Tubas, Arab reports said.

Late Friday, 30-year-old Ahmed Izat Imran was found beaten and stabbed to death under a tree near the village of Rujeib in the West Bank, Arab sources said.

Imran reportedly was abducted from his car Thursday night by masked youths. A search was launched by relatives who later found the body, reports said.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, the two alleged collaborators who were killed were identified as Niman abu Hilal, 30, who was fatally beaten at his home in Rafah by masked youths, and Jasser Krinawi, 24, whose body was found stuffed in a well in the Magazi refugee camp.

The army said four Arabs were taken into custody in connection with Krinawi’s death.