Rabin Vows ‘All Necessary Measures’ to Quell Unrest : Israel: Prime minister also moves to meet prisoners’ demands, wins suspension of two-week hunger strike.

Faced with the most serious Palestinian unrest in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank in the last two years, the Israeli government warned Sunday that it will “take all necessary measures” to quell the protests, and at the same time, it moved to resolve the grievances of prisoners whose two-week hunger strike had sparked the wave of protests.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, clearly concerned that the daily clashes between the Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops would quickly undermine Israel’s year-old peace talks with its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians themselves, responded to the mounting protests with a two-level strategy--tough on violence but forthcoming on humanitarian issues.

Visiting the violence-torn Gaza Strip on Sunday, Rabin as defense minister ordered Israeli troops there to “do whatever is needed,” according to Israel Army Radio, to restore order and prevent a resurgence of the intifada, the Palestinian rebellion against Israeli rule begun almost five years ago.

“We will not let these disturbances continue,” Rabin vowed, referring to the daily clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths over the last week. “The Israeli army’s orders are to act with all that is possible within the law to prevent the disturbances, whether by curfews, closures or military activities.”

But the government took a softer line with the nearly 5,000 “security prisoners” whose hunger strike had brought thousands of Palestinians onto the streets of towns, farming villages, refugee camps and Jerusalem in support of their demands for better conditions.

Winning a suspension of the strike, Police Minister Moshe Shahal promised immediate responses to such demands as better diets, improved medical care, renovation of visiting rooms, reassignment of members of a family to the same prison, correspondence courses for study and televisions, radios and fans for each cell.

Further measures to improve prison life will be studied, Shahal said, by a joint committee of prison officials and representatives of the hunger strikers--but on the principle that security would not be impaired.

Israeli Prison Authority officials also agreed to consider transfers to other facilities of some of an estimated 100 prisoners being held in solitary confinement at Beersheba and Ramle prisons, an action that would meet a major demand of the hunger strikers.

Hanan Ashrawi, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation at the Arab-Israeli talks, said the prisoners have “suspended their strike for one week upon the Israeli promises of meeting 14 of their demands. At the end of the week,” she added, “they will reassess the situation to see what their next steps should be.”

Two people died in the continuing violence in Gaza on Sunday.

Palestinian protesters marched Sunday in East Jerusalem, the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah and other sites in the Gaza Strip in support of the hunger strikers.

“Most families have somebody who was in prison or is in prison,” Shahal said, “and the (organizers) are trying to sabotage the peace process by using this issue as a pretext.”

With the prisoners again eating, however, Israeli officials believe that the protests will soon fade; military commanders on the West Bank and Gaza Strip had warned that the next two or three days would be a crucial time in which the unrest would be curbed or escalate to the most serious levels of the intifada in the late 1980s.

“In my estimation it’s a temporary phenomenon, although we have to be prepared for the more serious possibility--and we are prepared for it,” Brig. Gen. Moshe Ayalon, the Israeli commander on the West Bank, told Army Radio.

The agreement should also permit the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks to leave this week for another session in Washington as planned, according to Palestinian sources, because it will not be confronted by demands from critics of the talks to quit the talks.

“Rejectionist” groups opposed to the talks played a leading role in organizing the hunger strike, apparently in hopes of embarrassing mainstream groups such as Fatah that support the negotiations.

Rabin, speaking in Gaza, blamed the unrest on Palestinian frustration at the slow pace of peace talks, on those opposed to the current peace process and on those simply interested in retaining the power they currently hold.

“I hope the Palestinians will arrive more sober to the next round of talks,” Rabin said. “For our part, we will continue with the peace process, and on the other hand we will use all our strength to prevent disturbances. . . . Palestinians must understand that the solution of the problem is around the negotiation table and not in the streets and alleys of the towns and refugee camps in the territories.”