3 Palestinians shot dead

Press, 11 October 1988, Page 10

3 Palestinians shot dead

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem

Security forces shot dead three Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the start ,of the eleventh month of an uprising in the Israeli-occu-pied territories. Israeli troops raided at least 30 villages in the West Bank on Sunday, arresting suspected antiIsraeli activists, confiscating illegal materials and forcing residents to remove Palestinian flags and erase nationalist slogans. In the operation at Yatta village near Hebron, troops shot two men when dozens of villagers attacked security forces, an Army spokesman said. The two wounded Palestinians died as a helicopter brought in medical aid, he said. Twenty-three Palestinians were wounded in clashes when troops opened fire during similar raids in villages, cities and refugee camps on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where residents staged a general strike, hospital officials said.

Shootings were reported in Jenin, Hebron, Jalazoun camp and at Kufr

Na’meh, Sair and other villages of the West Bank.

Youths burned tyres, chanted nationalist slogans and threw stones. Public transport stopped, shops closed and workers mainly stayed at home in response to strike calls by underground leaders of the uprising.

At least 302 Palestinians have died during the revolt against Israeli military rule of the lands occupied since the 1967 Middle-East War. Six Jews have also died in the violence.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian stabbed a security guard who boarded a bus coming from Egypt to check travel documents at the border checkpoint at Rafah.

The guard opened fire, killing his attacker, who was a Rafah resident, and slightly wounding a Palestinian passenger. While six refugee camps and two neighbourhoods in the crowded seaside strip were under curfew, youths demonstrated in the streets, shouting, “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) and tossing several petrol bombs, witnesses said.