Prisoners’ Strike Puts West Bank, Gaza on Edge : Mideast: Six Palestinians are reported wounded as Israeli troops open fire on sympathy demonstrations.

Tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are rising rapidly as Palestinian activists mount daily demonstrations to support a week-old hunger strike by an estimated 4,500 prisoners in 13 Israeli jails.

Six Palestinians were reported wounded Saturday in the West Bank as Israeli troops opened fire to disperse demonstrations in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron.

Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed and another wounded, according to Israeli military authorities, during army searches near the West Bank town of Janin for wanted members of the Black Panthers guerrilla group. The men failed to halt when ordered by soldiers and were shot, a military spokesman said.

Palestinian sources said, however, that Mohammed Sadeq Ikmail, 20, a Black Panther leader, was killed in a 30-minute shootout with undercover soldiers. Another Black Panther was wounded as he came to Ikmail’s aid, they said. According to the army spokesman, the third Palestinian was fatally shot after throwing stones at the troops and fleeing when ordered to halt.

Ikmail had been on the Israeli authorities’ wanted list for a year and a half on suspicion of shooting at Israeli soldiers and killing eight Palestinians as collaborators, according to the army spokesman.

Israeli soldiers disguised as Arabs have waged an ongoing battle with the Black Panthers in Kabatiya, believed to be the group’s headquarters. The Black Panthers, affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mainstream Fatah wing, are regarded as the strongest guerrilla group in the occupied territories.

The incidents on Saturday underscored that, while the level of violence is much lower than at the height of the intifada , the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, the confrontation continues, day in and day out.

Hundreds demonstrated in support of the prisoners in protests last week in Jerusalem, Gaza City and refugee camps near there, the Golan Heights and a dozen West Bank towns as Palestinian leaders sought to use the hunger strike, begun a week ago, as the focus of current political activity.

Faisal Husseini, head of the Palestinian delegation to the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington, warned the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin last week that conditions in the prisons were a test of its sincerity in the negotiations as well as a question of what he called “elemental justice.”

“People in the street do not weigh up all the promising words--they look to the real changes,” Husseini said. “And the changes in the prisons are not for the better; in reality, they are for the worse, with more solitary confinements and more brutal interrogations.”

As the protests spread, involving daily marches and demonstrations, the confrontations with Israeli troops and police are increasing in both number and severity, according to reports from Israeli authorities and Palestinian groups.

“The Palestinian street is tense again,” Tawfiq Abu Khousah, a political activist in Gaza and a former prisoner, said in a weekend interview. “The tension is sharp, it’s palpable and it won’t fade quickly. People want results from these talks, and improved conditions in the prison should be a priority.”

The strike began at a prison north of Tel Aviv and spread quickly to 12 others. Of 6,500 “security prisoners,” as Israel describes them, 4,500 are now participating in the strike, Palestinian sources said. The protesting inmates have reportedly been joined by others jailed on criminal charges.

The prisoners’ demands are for improved conditions--better food, more sunlight, less crowding, basic medical care, heating, educational opportunities, more family visits and a better brand of cigarettes.

“In the light of the current negotiations for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, we request the international community to initiate an immediate and serious intervention to save our lives, to grant our legitimate demands, to put an end to the policy of slowly killing bodies and souls, and to guarantee prison conditions suitable for living human beings,” the prisoners said.

But the hunger strikers also called upon the Palestinian delegation to withdraw from the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington, playing upon the growing impatience with the negotiations after a year of meetings and thus casting their protest into the complexities of Palestinian politics.

For its part, the Israeli Prisons Authority said over the weekend that the striking prisoners are all held in conditions that meet “international standards.”