Israel Restricts Palestinians as Attacks Grow
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government, confronted by an escalation of Palestinian attacks on its security forces and civilians, ordered the army Tuesday to cordon off the occupied West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, and to deploy more troops in both regions to halt the spiraling violence.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, reluctantly ordering a crackdown that he acknowledged could intensify daily clashes with the Palestinians, also instructed soldiers and police to open fire without warning on any Arab seen with a gun--a major change in the security forces’ standing orders.
Further measures to increase security are planned, officials said, including more surprise identity checks and searches, a ban on Palestinians working on Israeli farms and steps to “separate†Israelis and Palestinians. Details will be disclosed only as the steps are implemented, they said.
The crackdown came after two Israeli policemen were found murdered just before dawn. Sgt. Maj. Mordechai Yisrael, 35, and Staff Sgt. Daniel Hazut, 32, had both been shot in the head and chest with Uzi submachine guns outside Hadera, a town of 40,000 about 30 miles north of Tel Aviv, near the Mediterranean coast.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, boasted in slogans painted on the walls of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip that its guerrillas had carried out the attack deep in Israel.
In an interview on state-run television, Rabin said he is prepared to keep the West Bank and Gaza Strip closed for as long as necessary, effectively barring 120,000 Palestinians from their jobs in Israel, in order to re-establish security. Gaza had been closed Monday because of the murders of six Israelis there this month.
“From tomorrow, there will be no Palestinians from the (occupied) territories on the sovereign territory of Israel until further notice,†Rabin declared. “Terrorism never defeated us and never will.â€
However, Rabin predicted “a difficult battle†for Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as young Palestinians, resentful at being kept from their jobs in Israel, also have more time for confrontation.
Seeking to reassure a country angry and fearful after the deaths of 15 civilians, policemen and soldiers in the past month alone, the prime minister pledged that “no political limits†will be placed on troops in coping with the unrest. He also promised to protect fully the 120,000 Israelis living in settlements in the regions.
“We will be able to reduce the terrorism (with the new measures) and open the path to negotiations, and there we will find a solution,†Rabin declared, using the most watched program on Israeli television to address the nation informally. “The peace process is not an answer to terrorism, but it will bring a solution to the conflict.â€
But Rabin, whose Labor Party won the right to govern in last June’s parliamentary election, was clearly struggling to end a crisis that has already reduced his ability to negotiate with Israel’s Arab neighbors and could now threaten his ability to govern at home.
Stung by opposition charges of inaction, Rabin gathered key ministers for an emergency Cabinet meeting after the policemen’s bodies were discovered.
“This event represents the bankruptcy of the Rabin government,†Hazut’s brother, Gadi, said. “We want an iron fist against terrorism, and Rabin just wants to play patty-cake.â€
About 200 people gathered at the scene of the killings, chanting, “Death to the Arabs!†In the evening, more than 1,000 demonstrators, mostly from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, clashed with police outside Rabin’s official residence in Jerusalem. “We want revenge!†they shouted. Several protesters were arrested.
Tensions continued to rise through much of Israel as well as the occupied territories.
A rally by about 1,500 Israeli Arabs at Shefaram to mark “Land Day,†an annual protest against the expropriation of their lands, was broken up by police after Islamic militants attacked pro-Communist speakers.
Jewish settlers set fire to a mosque in the southern Gaza Strip to protest the latest murder of a settler there, according to a military spokesman. And Israeli troops, clashing with stone-throwing youths, wounded a number of Palestinians at refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
“We are in a state of war,†Rafael Eitan, leader of the right-wing Tsomet Party, said. “The government is talking nonsense when it talks about political solutions.â€
Ariel Sharon, the former defense minister, called again for a state of emergency under a national unity government that includes hard-line conservative parties.
But the calls for the replacement of Rabin’s coalition government, which includes the left-wing Meretz group and an ultra-Orthodox religious party, came from many quarters, including Rabbi Yosef Lau, the new chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel, who said that a national unity government and a state of emergency are needed to put the people’s minds at ease.
“Terrorism has definitely scored achievements in the last months,†Ori Orr, a leading member of Rabin’s Labor Party, commented. “It has sown panic in parts of the public.â€
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