Israel Army Eases Rules for Firing on Armed Arabs

The Israeli army has given soldiers more latitude to fire on Palestinians in the occupied territories, telling troops they may shoot any armed Arab on sight, officials said Sunday.

The new orders, part of a general toughening of the army’s tactics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, come in response to a series of Palestinian gun attacks on Jewish settlers in the territories.

The government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has come under pressure from settlers demanding that the army take drastic steps to stop the attacks.

“In light of increased terror activity in the territories, the standing orders for opening fire have been clarified and widened, allowing our forces to react in the appropriate way under life-threatening situations,” an army statement said.

The army declined to elaborate on the new orders. But official sources said that soldiers who encounter Palestinians carrying guns, knives or other deadly weapons have been told they can immediately open fire. Until now, soldiers in such situations have been instructed to order the suspects to halt, fire in the air, and, if these measures fail, fire at the legs of the suspect.

“The soldier is to make every effort to protect his own life,” one source said.

Military sources said the new orders would not change the way regular army units handle unarmed Palestinians taking part in the Arab intifada , the uprising against Israeli rule of the occupied territories.

But Israeli officials say the uprising is shifting from stone-throwing to armed ambushes and stabbings.

“This is a response to the new kind of violence we are encountering,” said an official who asked not to be named. “Soldiers are now dealing with people who are armed.”

The army has periodically loosened its open-fire orders during the intifada. Rubber and plastic bullets have given way to live rounds, and targets from armed guerrillas to masked stone-throwers.

Despite nominally strict rules governing when soldiers may open fire, nearly all the Palestinians killed by Israelis in the uprising have been activists demonstrating, throwing stones or writing graffiti on walls.

The United States last week expressed concern about human rights abuses arising from the occupation but noted that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces had declined in 1991.

About 850 Palestinians have been shot and killed by the army and Jewish settlers since the intifada began in December, 1987. Several hundred Palestinians also have been slain by Arab militants after being accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces.

Since late October, four Israelis, three of them settlers, have been shot to death in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and a number of others have been wounded. Army commanders say the attacks have been carried out by small groups of Palestinian militants who oppose Arab-Israeli peace negotiations and hope to disrupt them.

The army last month imposed curfews and made a sweep of arrests in the occupied territories, but security sources said they failed to capture gunmen wanted for shooting the Israelis.

The army also has banned Palestinians from approaching within 150 yards of roads in the territories after dark, and has ordered the deportation of 11 alleged militants. It has carried out sweeps in several West Bank towns in which dozens of suspects have been detained without charge.