Israel expects more unrest during Shultz visit

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 10

Israel expects more unrest during Shultz visit

NZPA-Reuter | Tel Aviv Israeli troops braced for more Palestinian unrest in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip after United States Secretary of State, George Shultz, resumed a peace mission in the Middle East. I ( i ■

Military officials said troops were prepared for more violent anti-Israeli demonstrations,! after three days of relative calm, because of the Shultz visit and weekly prayers marking the Muslim sabbath. Security forces and worshippers have clashed outside mosques during anti-Israeli protests on several week-ends since an uprising erupted 12 weeks ago. At least 79 Palestinians have died in the unrest. ; A military spokesman

said the Army , was using . stronger glass fibre clubs to beat demonstrations because wooden truncheons had kept breaking in soliders’ hands. Mr Shultz emerged . smiling from talks wi h King Hussein of Jordan n London yesterday at the start of his renewed ;t--tempt to get the peate process moving. He flew to Israel for separate talks yesterday with the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, and Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, before flying on to

Damascus and Cairo. “To the best of my knowledge, while he doesn’t have enough yedses, he doesn’t have a single no in a definite manner," Mr Peres said of Mr Shultz’s mission. The United States peace proposals provide for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip followed by Arab-Israeli talks on the permanent status of the two areas captured in the 1967 Middle East War. In the latest West Bank violence, a Palestinian

stabbed a Jewish settler in the back and Israeli troops shot (and wounded three Arab protesters yes- i terday. The Settler Aharon Peretz, aged 16, was slightly wounded. A Reuters photographer, Jim Hollander, : and his wife, Rena Castel- I nuovo, a photographer on assignment | for “Time” magazine, were attacked by Jewish settlers in the ! West Bank . town of He- ; bron, where Aharon Peretz was .. : j Ms Castelnuovo, aged ! 35, was struck on the

head and ' required five stitches An the wound. Mr Hollander, aged 38, said I his lip i was injured and his ■ glasses were smashed. The 'head of a group representing the 70,000 Jewish | settlers of the West Bank! and Gaza Strip . apologised! for the attack, j ! It was the latest in a spate (of i assaults and threats| against the press by Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of whom blame the media for aggravating the unrest.