Israeli Soldiers Kill 4 Palestinians : Violence: Curfew is imposed on West Bank, Gaza Strip on anniversary of militant campaign.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians on Tuesday, government sources reported, as more than a million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were put under curfew on a key anniversary of their struggle against the Jewish state.

Israeli officials said that two masked Palestinians were shot to death in the Gaza Strip, the scene of four deaths last Saturday during the worst outbreak of violence since early November.

Two other Palestinians were reportedly killed during demonstrations in West Bank villages, and Israeli sources said they were youths who had attacked military patrols.

The curfew was imposed on most of the West Bank cities and refugee camps and on the Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said. The aim was to prevent violence on the 26th anniversary of the first military campaign against Israel by Fatah, a militant Palestinian organization born on Jan. 1, 1965.

Roadblocks were set up to prevent Arabs living in the West Bank from entering Jerusalem and going into Israel during the massive 24-hour security operation. The army and border police canceled all leaves and sent reinforcements to the West Bank and Gaza Strip with orders to quell any demonstrations or marches by Palestinians trying to commemorate the anniversary.

During the day, Palestinian sources said that many Palestine Liberation Organization flags were flying in Arab towns and villages in the Israeli-occupied territories--and nationalist graffiti were scrawled on walls.

Palestinians distributed a leaflet calling on young Palestinians to “burn the land under the feet of the occupier” and provide them with a “lesson they will never forget for the crimes and massacres against your people.”

But Israeli Police Minister Ronni Milo countered with a warning that “terrorists who come to attack us will not survive. We will liquidate them during the attack or we will demand capital punishment for them.”

Violence in the West Bank and Gaza had largely been curbed by the Israeli army’s defense measures until Oct. 8, when a score of Palestinian demonstrators, part of a crowd throwing stones at Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall, were shot to death on Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. A series of tit-for-tat stabbings and other violent incidents followed.

After that, violence declined until last Saturday, when four people were killed in Gaza. Those deaths led to another sequence of demonstrations. Then on Monday, a 24-year-old Palestinian woman from Bethlehem was killed in Jewish West Jerusalem when the bomb she was allegedly assembling blew up, according to Israeli police. Jerusalem police said the explosion was probably being prepared for the Fatah Day anniversary.

On Tuesday, about 2,000 Israeli police patrolled Jerusalem, according to the official count, and Palestinians were turned away at roadblocks. Speaking about the security operation, Jerusalem Police Commissioner Yaacov Terner said: “We deal with the whole period around January the 1st as a time of high alert.”

Meanwhile, police said that the chief suspect in the shooting last week of three Palestinians, 19-year-old Arieh Chelouche, is the brother of an Israeli who was stabbed to death last October by a West Bank Arab. Investigators said that Chelouche told them that he had fired shots at a passing car to avenge the death of his brother, Charlie. Three Palestinians, including a 9-month-old girl, were wounded in the attack.

BACKGROUND

Fatah, or “Conquest,” is the main branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It came into being on Jan. 1, 1965, with a communique declaring that it would raid Israel’s water sources. The attack never took place because Lebanese security forces arrested those who were to participate. Controlled by PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Fatah is less radical than other Palestinian factions. Many have broken away from the PLO. Claiming Arafat is too willing to compromise with Israel over land Palestinians claim as their own, some extremist groups are vying to unseat him as the recognized leader of the Palestinian people. Prominent among these groups is Hamas, or “Zeal,” an Islamic fundamentalist group.