Police Gas Jewish Settlers Raiding Arabs

Police fired tear gas at Jewish settlers who rampaged through Arab neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area early today, smashing car and house windows, after Palestinians firebombed an Israeli bus.

Settlers from Maale Adumim, a West Bank bedroom community town perched on hills just outside Jerusalem, attacked Arab motorists after a gasoline bomb hit a bus on the road to their settlement. One settler was arrested, police said.

“Several groups of Maale Adumim residents went wild. They stoned Arab homes near the road to Jerusalem, tried to yank Arabs out of their cars and disrupted traffic,” a police spokeswoman said.

She said the settlers stoned houses in the Arab villages of Eizariya and Isawiya outside East Jerusalem. The army clamped a curfew on Eizariya, a frequent ambush spot where a Jewish cabdriver was stoned and injured Monday night.

Five employees of the Arabic Al-Fajr newspaper were injured by flying glass when 50 settlers yelling “Death to Arabs!” stoned their car, an Arab journalist said.

Also today, Palestinians staged a general strike in the occupied territories on the 42nd anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel. Two more Arabs died from Israeli gunfire in uprising-related incidents.

In the West Bank village of Qalqiliya, 14-year-old Samih abu Sheikh died from wounds received when he was shot in the head by an Israeli motorist Sunday, the army said. Palestinians said a settler shot him.

On Monday night, border police shot and killed Khamis abu Khousa, 19, in a clash with masked activists in an orchard in the Gaza Strip, military sources said.

Israel Radio said the village headman of Balaa in the West Bank was stabbed to death by militants who accused him of collaborating with security forces. The army said it has found the body of an Arab man and is nvestigating.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip closed their shops, halted transport and stayed home to protest the anniversary of Israel’s establishment. Israelis celebrated the anniversary April 30 according to the Hebrew calendar.