Israelis Kill 6 as Palestinian Areas Erupt : Mideast: Violent protests sweep West Bank and Gaza. The rioting is sparked by slaying of 7 laborers near Tel Aviv.

Israeli troops cracked down on violent protests that swept the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday as Palestinians, enraged by the unprovoked shooting deaths of seven Arab workers at dawn, took to the streets to demonstrate and stone army patrols.

During the course of the day, soldiers shot and killed at least six Palestinians, four of them in the Gaza Strip. Several more gunshot victims were reported to be in serious condition. The numbers of patients reported treated at Palestinian hospitals topped 600 in Gaza alone; the army said that 200 were injured.

Twelve soldiers were slightly hurt, Israel Radio reported.

It was one of the most turbulent days of the 29-month-old Arab uprising against Israeli rule, interrupting a trend toward scattered, less numerous protests in the West Bank and Gaza. Rioters defied curfews in several places and, in Gaza, boldly rushed military outposts before being driven back by rifle fire and mechanically hurled gravel. Israeli officials were concerned that the impassioned reaction might continue and fire up the uprising.

The wildcat protests were set off by reports of the morning mass shooting near Rishon le Zion, five miles south of Tel Aviv, in which seven Palestinian day laborers were slain. A lone Israeli wearing a military uniform and carrying a Galil assault rifle gunned down the Palestinians, who were waiting with several others to be hired at a roadside gathering spot.

Besides the dead, at least nine others were wounded as the unidentified gunman opened fire at close range.

The Israeli accosted the group, told the men to sit down and demanded their identification cards. The workers complied, believing that the khaki-clad man was a soldier.

“Do you know why I stopped you?” a witness quoted the assailant as telling the Arab workers.

“No,” they replied.

“It is better that you don’t know,” the gunman concluded before opening fire on the Arabs as they sat on the ground.

The Israeli emptied one clip of bullets and then loaded another as the Arabs scattered for cover in the nearby scrub brush.

“I was able to roll into the gutter,” said one survivor hospitalized for gunshot wounds in the stomach.

The gunman commandeered the car of one of the Arabs and escaped to the home of his girlfriend, telling her that he had done “a terrible thing,” an Israel Radio report said.

Authorities were notified, apparently by the girlfriend, and the suspect was arrested. Investigators said he apparently planned and carried out the shooting alone.

The suspect, aged 21, served in the army from 1987 to 1988 but was discharged as “unsuitable” after serving several months in military jail on desertion charges, military officials said. Foreign Minister Moshe Arens told a reporter that the man was “not balanced.”

Yaacov Turner, Israel’s national police chief, said the gunman stole the khaki uniform and rifle from his brother, who was home on leave.

The suspect said that he was depressed because he had been jilted by his girlfriend, Turner recalled. The gunman also claimed to have been sexually molested at the age of 13 by an Arab and had gone to take revenge on the man, whom he expected to be waiting at the site.

The supposed target did not show up. When asked why he shot the other Arabs, the gunman responded, “I was confused,” Turner said.

Although Israeli officials described the killing of the laborers as criminal, crazy and an isolated event without meaning, there was clear concern that it would upset efforts to put down the uprising.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir expressed condolences to the families of the dead workers but warned against protests. “We are all shocked by this terrible crime of an individual. I hope the Arab population will not take this abnormal incident and use it to incite,” Shamir said.

The way to stop violence is through negotiations, he added, without giving details. Shamir has rejected efforts by the Bush Administration to set up Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron expressed dismay both over the dawn killing and the chances it will fuel mass demonstrations. “There is no doubt an incident like this will be exploited” by Palestinian leadership, he said.

Doves and hawks differed on the meaning of the incident. Shimon Peres, head of the dovish Labor Party, said the incident should serve as an impetus to “renew peace efforts.” Rehamam Zeevi, leader of a minor party that favors expulsion of Arabs, said Israel should hold a referendum on his group’s proposal.

Some Arabs viewed the incident as the result of light sentences given to Israeli soldiers and civilians convicted of unlawfully killing Palestinians. Recently, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a militant leader of Israeli settlements, was sentenced to five months for fatally shooting a Palestinian shopkeeper during the early days of the intifada, or uprising.

“The government is responsible because it does not hand out adequate punishment to Jews who commit such acts,” said one of the wounded laborers. “They only get a couple of months or days.”

Several Palestinian leaders announced that they will go on a hunger strike to try to whip up world support for protection for Arabs and a U.N. condemnation of the violence. Faisal Husseini, a prominent supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, put the blame for the killing on the Israeli government.

“Even if this man is mentally sick, the atmosphere created by such a government is responsible,” he told reporters. “What (the gunman) did, he did it based on the policies of the government, on the policies of the occupation.”

Within hours after the 6 a.m. Rishon le Zion shooting, military authorities placed the Gaza Strip and major West Bank towns under curfew. Just as quickly, Arab activists ordered merchants to shut their stores, and the Arab Federation of Trade Unions called for a three-day strike. In East Jerusalem, the steel shutters of shops in the business district were rolled down by 11 a.m.

In the West Bank towns of Hebron and Ramallah, youths set up stone roadblocks and hurled rocks at jeeps and Israeli civilian buses, Israel Television reported. Other towns were totally shut down by strikes and curfews.

Palestinian workers streamed home to Gaza at the news of the shooting. Tens of thousands of Palestinians labor at mainly menial tasks in Israel each day.

As they entered the Strip, the workers mounted buses and cars, yelled nationalist slogans and the Muslim cry “God is great” and waved black shirts and cloth as signs of mourning. Rhythmic honking of horns brought protesters out in the streets. Automobile tires were set ablaze in towns and refugee camps.

In the cities of Gaza and Rafah and in the Khan Yunis, Jabaliya and Bureij refugee camps, mobs stormed military outposts and were driven back by shooting. Helicopter-borne troops fired on demonstrators at the Shati refugee camp.

Chief of Staff Shomron said it will take three or four days to know if the reaction marked a permanent change in the course of the intifada by fueling mass demonstrations of the type that were common at the beginning of the uprising.