The World - News from March 3, 1988

Israeli troops hunting for Palestinian protesters invaded a West Bank hospital compound for the second straight day and fired tear gas into the reception area of an emergency room, driving out dozens of elderly patients, Arab doctors said. About a dozen Israeli soldiers charged into government-run Ramallah Hospital after being confronted by rock-hurling Palestinian protesters who blocked a street outside the building, the doctors said. On Tuesday, three soldiers invaded the hospital, eight miles north of Jerusalem, firing tear gas and rubber bullets and striking two doctors with their rifles, the physicians said. But an army spokesman denied that soldiers had entered the hospital or beat doctors.