Two Israeli Policemen Slain; Arab Guerrillas Suspected

Two Israeli policemen were shot to death early today near the northern town of Hadera, apparently by Palestinian guerrillas taking their campaign of attacks deep into Israel itself. A Jewish settler was stabbed to death Monday in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The bodies of the policemen, each shot in the head, were found at dawn today in their patrol car at the entrance to Hadera, about 25 miles north of Tel Aviv, by a truck driver who noticed that their car motor was running, according to police sources. Their weapons had been taken, the sources said.

Police began an intensive manhunt through nearby orange groves, the sources said, but found no tracks in the first two hours. Police Inspector General Yaakov Terner rushed to the scene with other senior officers.

The identities of the two officers were not released, pending notification of their families, and further details were not immediately available.

Police were already geared up for widespread protests throughout northern Israel today for “Land Day,” when Israeli Arabs mark the expropriation of their lands in the establishment of the Jewish state. Six Israeli Arabs were killed by police in 1976 protests, and the anniversary is always tense.

The Gaza Strip settler, Shaya Deutsch, 39, was stabbed Monday afternoon while working in his greenhouse in Kfar Yam, according to a military spokesman. He reportedly was killed while discussing severance pay with a Palestinian worker he was laying off for security reasons.

Deutsch was the sixth Israeli killed in Gaza this month and the second to be stabbed to death there in two days. Another settler was killed on Sunday by two Palestinians working on a house he was building there.

Deutsch’s brother Moshe was stabbed and moderately wounded last week in an incident on the West Bank in which another settler shot and killed a Palestinian, although the Palestinian had been subdued and bound.

In Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, Ahmad Mohammed Yusef Elyan was shot and killed Monday when troops opened fire on a stone-throwing group of Palestinians, according to a military spokesman.

In an attempt to cope with the growing violence, Israeli troops had sealed off the strip early Monday. Palestinians said eight people were injured by gunshots during clashes with troops in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The closure order barred all 750,000 Arab residents from leaving Gaza for at least two days and perhaps through the weekend, security sources said. The army also screened Arab cars at roadblocks outside Jerusalem.