Violence in West Bank and Israel Injures 18

Stone-throwing clashes erupted Saturday in West Bank areas, injuring more than a dozen Palestinians and several Israelis.

In a separate development, police said they suspected Palestinians of planting an explosive device that blew off the hands of an Israeli man in the town of Afula in northern Israel. No one else was injured.

The blast occurred in a park just outside a bus station. Israel’s Army Radio said the victim told authorities that he had spotted a suspicious-looking cardboard box and was examining it when it exploded.

There have been daily disturbances in the West Bank since the shooting deaths of three Palestinian workers at an Israeli roadblock Tuesday night.

In the village of Dura, the hometown of the slain men, about 200 Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli troops, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Twelve Palestinians were hurt, including a journalist, as well as two Israeli soldiers.

In Hebron, one Palestinian officer was injured in a clash with stone-throwing youths.

About 25 Palestinian journalists marched through the city to protest the Friday shootings of nine colleagues, who were injured by Israeli troops firing rubber bullets.

The nine journalists were hit during violence that flared after dozens of Jewish settlers entered a Palestinian-ruled part of Hebron and began hurling stones.

The army said the area was dark and that troops did not notice that journalists were involved.

In addition, an Israeli border policeman and a soldier were injured in stone-throwing incidents outside Bethlehem and near Ramallah in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Cabinet denounced the roadblock shooting as a “hideous crime” and demanded that the soldiers involved be punished. Israel is still investigating the incident.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat accused Israel of escalating “aggression” against Palestinians and called for international protection for his people.

The army detained three soldiers after the roadblock shooting but later released them. The soldiers said they opened fire because they thought that they were under attack when the van carrying the victims made a sudden lurch.

Also Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he had no intention of scrapping a visit to the site of a controversial Jewish settlement in southeast Jerusalem despite an Israeli request.

Israel asked Cook to cancel the planned visit to the housing development, called Har Homa in Hebrew, saying it would be “a provocative act.”