Arab Reports

Israeli soldiers reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian and wounded 15 Arabs in clashes that broke out Saturday during a Palestinian strike to protest Israel's Middle East peace plan. Also Saturday, troops reportedly burned uniforms belonging to Arab militants. According to an Arab report, the soldiers also torched several copies of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims, along with the uniforms. Arab reports said the strike was observed in the seaside Gaza Strip, where troops on Friday killed three Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority declared its intention Monday to hold its first municipal elections but said a general vote for the presidency and parliament could not be held as long as Israel maintains a military grip on Palestinian cities and towns. The announcement was widely viewed as an effort to shore up the standing of the Palestinian leadership in advance of next week's meeting in Berlin of Prime Minister Ahmed Korei and Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security advisor.

Israeli soldiers reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian and wounded 15 Arabs in clashes that broke out during a Palestinian strike to protest Israel's Middle East peace plan. Arab reports said the strike was observed in the Gaza Strip, where troops on Friday killed three Palestinians. In the Khan Yunis refugee camp, soldiers shot Akram Mohammed Schade Saada in the neck, and he later died at the nearby Nasser Hospital, Israel Radio reported. The army immediately imposed a curfew on the camp, forcing its 35,000 residents to stay indoors, Arab reports said.

Madison Avenue-style advertising aimed at "selling" America to Middle Eastern audiences isn't likely to work and could backfire, warned the chairman of a presidential commission on public diplomacy. "There's more to America than Calvin Klein jeans--and that's the point," said Harold C. Pachios, chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. "We are thought of as superficial, so we need to avoid anything that smacks of the superficial."

Israeli soldiers Sunday fatally shot two Palestinians during clashes in the occupied territories, a 12-year-old boy and a 60-year-old man, and Israeli sailors destroyed a rubber dinghy off the southern Lebanon coast, killing four Palestinian guerrillas headed toward Israel. Arab reports said 11 Palestinians were wounded in violence that came on the second day of a general strike in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the West Bank city of Hebron, a curfew was imposed after troops shot to death a 60-year-old laborer.

The army on Saturday barred Israeli leftists carrying black flags of mourning from entering the West Bank village of Nahhalin, the site of a bloody raid by border police that killed five people. Also Saturday, officials at Jerusalem's Mukassed Hospital said a Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israeli authorities died Thursday of stab wounds. Arab reports identified the man as Musallam Mahmoud Shaheen, 40, and said masked youths broke into his West Bank home and attacked him because they suspected him of cooperating with Israel.

Israeli troops and militiamen of the South Lebanon Army on Sunday killed two Palestinian guerrillas and captured two others in a shoot-out in southern Lebanon, an army spokesman said. The patrol spotted four guerrillas before dawn inside Israel's self-proclaimed security zone near the village of Marjayoun, a few miles north of the Israeli border, and opened fire. There were no reported casualties among the Israeli or Lebanese troops. "A preliminary investigation established that the terrorists intended to carry out an attack on a northern settlement to kill Israelis," the army spokesman said, adding that the guerrillas carried Soviet-made Kalashnikov assault rifles, a grenade launcher, two American-made anti-tank rockets, wire cutters and explosives.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, one a 14-year-old boy, and wounded more than 50 people Wednesday during a six-hour gun battle near the Gaza Strip-Egyptian border, Palestinian hospital officials said. The officials and witnesses said Hani Youssef Sufi, 14, was killed during a heavy exchange in the town of Rafah. Salman Zorob, 18, died of a bullet wound in the chest suffered during the Rafah battle, the officials said.

Israeli soldiers wounded at least 27 Palestinians during street battles in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Arab hospital officials said. They reported at least four people seriously wounded in confrontations in Tammun, a West Bank village, and in several areas of Gaza, including a 9-year-old boy who was shot in the head and a 14-year-old girl who was shot in the back. The army confirmed four wounded and said it was checking the other reports.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian in a stone-throwing clash in the West Bank on Thursday and wounded eight others, Arab doctors said. Earlier Thursday, a 4-year-old Arab girl died of head injuries suffered in a mysterious explosion three days ago. In the West Bank city of Nablus, doctors at Ittihad Hospital said 25-year-old Issam El Bulbul died of a chest wound suffered in a stone-throwing clash with soldiers. Eight others were reportedly wounded. The army had no immediate comment.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, one a 14-year-old boy, and wounded more than 50 people Wednesday during a six-hour gun battle near the Gaza Strip-Egyptian border, Palestinian hospital officials said. The officials and witnesses said Hani Youssef Sufi, 14, was killed during a heavy exchange in the town of Rafah. Salman Zorob, 18, died of a bullet wound in the chest suffered during the Rafah battle, the officials said.

In an airless, smoke-filled room at the Palestinian Authority's headquarters here, Col. Tawfiq Tirawi's men on Monday defended him--and themselves--from Israeli accusations of direct involvement in a deadly campaign against reported Arab land dealers. "There is nothing in this," said the man behind the desk, a senior officer for the Palestinian General Intelligence Service in this West Bank city. "The Israelis are trying to divert attention from the problems with the peace process.

Arab foreign ministers are expected to decide here today to delay the next round of peace negotiations with Israel at least a week beyond the Tuesday date set by President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, according to Arab diplomats and sources close to the deliberations in Syria.

Palestinian activists Saturday killed a woman suspected of collaborating with Israel in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. Fatma Shaat, 45, was shot in the head by members of the Black Panther group, which is associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah group, they added. The sources said the attackers fled when Israeli soldiers entered the camp but that hundreds of stone-throwing residents then clashed with the soldiers.

Israeli troops shot and wounded at leave five Palestinians in clashes in the occupied Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. The protests came as a Palestinian strike closed stores and curtailed traffic throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians reportedly burned tires and hurled rocks at soldiers on Gaza City's main commercial street.

Groups of armed Palestinian activists have begun organized patrols in the West Bank city of Nablus to search for Palestinians they suspect of collaborating with Israel, Arab reporters said. Members of two underground gangs--the Black Panthers and the Red Eagles--have been seen at least twice patrolling alleys of Nablus' Old City, carrying lists of suspected collaborators and questioning people, the reporters said.

Israeli soldiers reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian and wounded 15 Arabs in clashes that broke out during a Palestinian strike to protest Israel's Middle East peace plan. Arab reports said the strike was observed in the Gaza Strip, where troops on Friday killed three Palestinians. In the Khan Yunis refugee camp, soldiers shot Akram Mohammed Schade Saada in the neck, and he later died at the nearby Nasser Hospital, Israel Radio reported. The army immediately imposed a curfew on the camp, forcing its 35,000 residents to stay indoors, Arab reports said.

Israeli soldiers reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian and wounded 15 Arabs in clashes that broke out Saturday during a Palestinian strike to protest Israel's Middle East peace plan. Also Saturday, troops reportedly burned uniforms belonging to Arab militants. According to an Arab report, the soldiers also torched several copies of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims, along with the uniforms. Arab reports said the strike was observed in the seaside Gaza Strip, where troops on Friday killed three Palestinians.