Israeli troops kill Arab woman, close Palestine press service

Associated Press

Transcribed from the clipping

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank (AP) — Israel today closed a key Arab information service and its soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded three family members in their home in the occupied West Bank. Hospital officials said three other Arabs were wounded in clashes today, an annual day of violent protest in the occupied territories.

Israeli officials hoped their ability to control unrest today might signal the end of nearly four months of violent Arab protests. Eight police officers swept into the Arab-owned Palestine Press Service in east Jerusalem and ordered it closed for six months under 1948 emergency regulations.

The service is the only Arab information agency and has been a critical source for journalists since Israel ordered the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip closed Monday. The move was one of several measures taken by Israel in an effort to block major rioting to mark Land Day, an annual day of demonstrations against Israeli land confiscation.

Six Arabs were killed in a Land Day protest 12 years ago. An extra 4,000 police were stationed today in Israel’s Arab sectors, including traffic police placed on riot duty. Telephone lines to Gaza remained severed, troops warned on loudspeakers that curfew violators would be shot and Gaza and the West Bank were closed to most outside traffic.

Only the territories’ 65,000 Jewish settlers were permitted to travel freely. The tight security failed to prevent a killing in Deir Abu Mashal, a West Bank village 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem, according to hospital officials and a report by the Palestine Press Service made moments before it was closed.

Troops entered the home of Wajalah Rabir, 50, while she and her family were eating breakfast, and fatally shot her in the head, Ramallah Hospital officials told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. A visitor to the hospital quoted Mrs. Rabir’s 17-year-old daughter Zeinab as saying the soldiers came in and asked if there were any men in the house.

The visitor said the girl told the troops no men were home, but they entered anyway. The visitor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted the girl as saying a soldier shot one brother who started to run. Other family members then lunged toward the troops, who opened fire on the family. The hospital officials said Mrs.

Rabir was killed and her husband and two sons were shot and were in serious condition. The officials, who have been banned from speaking to journalists, insisted on anonymity. The army confirmed the woman was killed and three people were wounded.

The fatality brought to 120 the number of Palestinians who have been killed by Israelis since the unrest in the occupied lands began Dec. 8, according to U.N. figures. One Israeli soldier was also killed during that time.

Three other Palestinians were wounded today in the West Bank — one in a clash near Betinuya, a small village south of Ramallah, and two, including a 12-year-old girl, in Sair near Hebron, hospital officials said. In New York, the U.N. Security Council scheduled an urgent, Arab-requested meeting for today on the unrest.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar expressed “acute concern” over the continued killing of unarmed Palestinians. Ibrahim Kareen, publisher of the Palestine Press Service, called the closure order “another act of repression. Israeli officials are trying to impose a complete blackout on what is happening in the occupied territories.”

He said police told him the agency was being closed in part because it was funded by the Palestine Liberation Organization, an allegation he denied. Kareen vowed he would continue providing information to foreign journalists: “All we need is a telephone.” A general strike was observed today in Israel’s Arab towns, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Dozens of mounted police and foot patrols moved through east Jerusalem’s main Salah Edin Street. In Nazareth, the village where tradition says Jesus grew up, Arab activists today monitored the effectiveness of the general strike.

“We’ve been sitting in this car since 4:30 a.m. and everything has gone according to plan,” Suheil Diab, head of the local strike organization, told the AP. “This is the most successful strike we have ever had.” About 900 Arabs have been arrested in east Jerusalem since Dec. 8, Israel radio said.

Context added by this archive

The same dispatch as the Kerrville and Indiana papers, and this one runs two paragraphs the others cut. Ibrahim Kareen was told the agency was being closed in part because the Palestine Liberation Organization funded it, which he denied, and he said he would go on giving information to foreign correspondents anyway: All we need is a telephone.

Cite this item

"Israeli troops kill Arab woman, close Palestine press service," Shreveport Journal, 30 March 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-064. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-064