Israeli troops shoot 13 Palestinians

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 8

Israeli troops shoot 13 Palestinians

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem Troops, using plastic bullets and live ammunition in a drive against anti-Israeli protests, shot and wounded 13 Palestinians on Saturday during clashes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The clashes followed the death overnight of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl who had been hit in the head by a plastic bullet fired by Israeli troops at demonstrators in Amarai camp on September 17. Israel television, meanwhile, reported that five pro-Palestinian American women, arrested earlier in the week for participating in anti-Israeli demonstrations, were to be deported to Jordan. The Army started using plastic bullets, this month as part of a renewed offensive against antiIsrael protests in the territories. The Defence Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, said last week that he had eased the rules for opening fire with the bullets, which can be lethal below a range of 70m. The dead girl, Naheel

Nu’man, was the 280th Palestinian to die in a nine-month uprising against Israeli military rule in the occupied zones. Six Israelis have also died. Troops shot and wounded two youths in Tulkarem town, a Palestinian in Nablus and two others in Deir Dibwan village on Saturday, an Army spokesman said. Demonstrators also erected barricades and threw stones in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron, where tension ran high following stone-throwing on Friday and Saturday involving Arabs and Jews. In the Gaza Strip, troops shot and wounded ' four Palestinians — one seriously — in clashes in Sha’ti camp, hospital officials said. Four others were wounded in clashes in Shaboura camp in the border town of Rafah, the officials said. The Army reported two wounded in Rafah. Youths in Gaza City threw stones at Army patrols and burned tyres on the streets, witnesses said.