Protesters Storm Hebron City Hall Over Factory Fire
Hundreds of Palestinians stormed the Hebron municipality Saturday, breaking windows and wrecking the mayor’s car to protest the death of 16 workers in a fire.
The protest erupted after Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat left the West Bank city. He had paid a visit to the burned-out illegal basement workshop, where he pledged $3,000 in compensation to each victim’s family.
“I came especially today to investigate the case,” Arafat told reporters two days after the lighter factory, which operated without a municipal permit, exploded in a fireball fueled by lighter fluid stored on the premises.
Shouting through loudspeakers for the resignation of Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natsche, the protesters--many of them relatives of the 15 young women and one man who died in the blaze--smashed the windows of his car and four other vehicles.
They threw stones and tried to storm city hall through a gate, but municipal employees held them back with clubs. Other city workers took to the roof and hurled rocks at the protesters below.
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