Attacks Heat Up Debate on Israeli Withdrawal : West Bank: Violence against Jewish settlers and troops outrages many. But pullout is likely to continue.

An upsurge in violent incidents accompanying the accelerating pullout of Israeli troops from West Bank towns and villages has sparked a heated political debate here over the pace and form of the withdrawal.

On Thursday, an Israeli border policeman shot a 23-year-old Palestinian to death after he reportedly stabbed two elderly Jews outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank town of Hebron. Palestinian sources in Hebron said the Palestinian was an activist in the militant Islamic movement Hamas who was previously arrested by the Israelis for belonging to the organization.

The Jews who were stabbed, both students in a Jewish religious school in Hebron and residents of the Kiryat Arba settlement, were moderately injured in the attack. They were both about 70 years old.

It was the third attack on Jewish settlers in Hebron this week, said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the 450 Jewish settlers who live in the heart of the city.

“On Monday, shots were fired at Beit Hadassa, where I live,” Arnon said in a telephone interview. “Tuesday morning, two grenades were thrown in that area that did not explode. Today, this stabbing.”

Arnon blamed the army’s pullout from Palestinian towns and villages for what he said is the increased boldness of Palestinian attacks on settlers.

“The Palestinians see the withdrawal and how it is taking place, they see the behavior of the army as weakness, and they are encouraged to attack this weak body,” he said. “We expect to see an escalation of incidents, more and more terror in the weeks to come.”

But neither the Hebron incident nor the messy retreat of the last Israeli troops from Nablus on Monday seemed likely to delay the army’s redeployment. Israel is scheduled to be out of six of the seven largest West Bank towns by the end of the year, effectively ending its 28-year occupation of the West Bank.

On Sunday, the army is expected to evacuate the northern town of Kalqilya. On Monday, it is scheduled to pull out of Bethlehem, where Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is expected to participate for the first time in Christmas Eve Mass. Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran, commander of the Central Command, has promised that Israel’s retreat from the remaining cities will be more orderly than its withdrawal from Nablus.

The army is due to leave the villages surrounding Hebron on Dec. 26 and plans to leave the West Bank town of Ramallah on Dec. 28. Because of the explosive mixture of Jewish settlers and Palestinians in Hebron, the army is delaying its pullout from that city until March 26, more than two months after Palestinian elections are scheduled to be held in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Even then, rule in Hebron will be divided between the Israeli army and the Palestinian police, with the Israelis controlling the areas where Jewish settlers live.

Israeli and Palestinian officials say that the redeployment has gone fairly smoothly until now. But members of the Israeli political opposition and government supporters expressed concern after thousands of Palestinians cursed the last Israeli troops as they pulled out of Nablus on Monday.

Outraged Israelis jammed the switchboard of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and radio talk shows to complain about what many termed the “national disgrace” of the soldiers’ undignified retreat and to complain that this is evidence that the Palestinians are unwilling to live in peace.

“The army must not flee or even appear to be fleeing,” said Hagai Merom, chairman of the Knesset Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs. A dovish member of the Labor Party, Merom said that television footage showing thousands of cursing Palestinians closing in on the last Israeli jeeps as they pulled out of Nablus showed a situation “which must never happen. This might cause the mistaken impression that we can be kicked out of places.”

Palestinian security officials pointed out that no one was injured in the Nablus chaos. They blamed the Israelis for moving their withdrawal up by two days and failing to properly coordinate it with the Palestinians. The Israelis departed so suddenly that Palestinian police were not in a position to shield their withdrawal, the Palestinians said.

“What happened is a natural reaction to the freedom from occupation, especially in a city like Nablus,” said Brig. Gen. Ismail Jaber, commander of Palestinian police in the West Bank. “Nablus is the largest city, the city which suffered a lot and gave a lot of martyrs to fighting the occupation. Seeing the occupation leave before their eyes, I think their reaction was not surprising.”

Arafat is expected to visit Nablus today and spend the night there before flying to Jericho on Saturday for a luncheon with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher. On Wednesday, Arafat officially set the date for elections to the Palestinian self-rule council for Jan. 20. The first candidates for the 83-seat council filed their registration papers Thursday.

Christopher begins another round of shuttle diplomacy today between Jerusalem and Damascus, Syria, seeking to restart Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.

Arriving in Syria on Thursday, Christopher said he hopes to “capitalize” on the change in mood and tone since the assassination last month of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

“Under some circumstances, the assassination of the prime minister might have thrown the peace process off track, but under these circumstances it seems to have caused the parties to rededicate to the process with even more determination,” he said.

Preliminary discussions with Syrian President Hafez Assad indicated that he is committed to “finding a way to respond to this new situation” expeditiously, the secretary told reporters.

Times staff writer Robin Wright in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.