63 Palestinians Reported Wounded by Troops in Gaza

Israeli troops shot and wounded at least 63 Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days of the Arab uprising, hospitals reported.

Witnesses said most of the injured were shot in clashes that erupted when troops raided a house in the Rafah Palestinian refugee camp where residents were mourning an Arab killed by troops Wednesday.

An Israeli army spokeswoman gave the number of wounded as 33 and said the conflict centered around “the house of a person killed three days ago.”

Gaza residents said some soldiers shouted “Ismailia!” as they fired, an apparent reference to last week’s killing of nine Israeli tourists in an attack on a bus on the Ismailia-Cairo road in Egypt. Egyptian officials have said the attackers were Palestinians and that the driver of their getaway car was from the Rafah region.

Troops sealed off major towns in the occupied West Bank and clamped curfews on parts of Gaza as Arab residents celebrated the eighth anniversary of the outlawed Palestine Communist Party.

Since the Palestinian revolt began in December, 1987, Israelis have killed at least 625 Arabs and 43 Jews have died.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by fellow Arabs, mostly on suspicion of collaborating with occupation forces.

Communist supporters in Gaza City marched with the banned Palestinian flag until security forces dispersed them with tear gas.

Stone-throwing demonstrators injured a paramilitary border policeman, and witnesses said his colleagues severely clubbed two Palestinian youths. The city’s Ahli hospital said it was treating two badly beaten teen-agers.

The army spokeswoman said that the West Bank towns of Nablus, Tulkarm and Bethlehem had been declared closed military zones, off limits to journalists and all non-residents.

“They are closed because of suspicions of possible planned unrest there,” she said.

Palestinians said that at least 1,000 people marched in the Nablus market until troops attacked with gunfire and tear gas. A local hospital said it treated one person for a gunshot wound.

In Ramallah, where Communist support is high, residents of the town center were confined to their homes until further notice.

Large numbers of armed police and border police patrolled the streets of Arab East Jerusalem and lined the ramparts of the walled Old City.