Israel Curbs Palestinian Travel, Cuts Phone Service

JERUSALEM —  The Israeli government Tuesday banned travel by Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, one of several moves a moderate Arab mayor said will increase bitterness and hatred in the occupied territories. Hospital officials said soldiers killed two Arabs and wounded 12 during street clashes.

The military administration also cut telephone lines connecting the occupied territories with foreign countries, Israel radio reported. It said the measure apparently was to prevent “PLO members in Europe from passing orders to residents of the territories.”

The military command declined to comment on the reason for the action, saying only that the army “is taking different steps to treat problems in the territories.”

At least 91 Palestinians have been killed since protests against the Israeli occupation of territories it seized during the 1967 Middle East War began Dec. 9.

2-Day Strike Begins

As the travel ban took effect, Arabs began a two-day general strike that kept most of the 115,000 Palestinians who work in Israel away from their jobs.

The travel ban is one of several restrictions Israel hopes will reduce the underground Palestinian leadership’s success in organizing strikes and forcing the resignations of Arab police officers and tax collectors.

Others curbs include a nightly five-hour curfew on the Gaza Strip’s 650,000 Arab residents and selectively cutting off electricity as punishment.

“What is the result? More bitterness, more hatred, more friction between the two peoples,” said Elias Freij, a Palestinian who is mayor of Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered by Christians as the place Jesus was born.

Exports Could Slow

Hashem Shawa, director of the Bank of Palestine in Gaza, said the latest measures could hamper the Gaza Strip’s ability to export citrus, its major earner of hard currency. Half the territory’s 52,118 tons of citrus exports last year went to Jordan over West Bank bridges.

“The economy is in a very bad situation. Merchants cannot meet their obligations,” he said.

An official in the army-run territorial administration said the travel ban was designed to keep agitators and anti-Israeli literature from moving freely between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The latest strike coincided with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s visit to Washington. An underground leaflet from the so-called Unified National Leadership for the Uprising in the Occupied Territories said the strike slogan was: “No alternative to an independent state led by the PLO, our sole representative.”

Hundreds of Arab police officers have resigned under pressure from Palestinian militants. Israel Radio said Tuesday that 500 officers had quit, 300 of them in Gaza City, but that 40 later returned to work.

Police spokesman Rafi Levy said seven Arab officers in Jerusalem turned in their badges Tuesday, the first resignations there.

In another development, the Israeli army said Tuesday that a military judge sentenced two soldiers Monday after they were convicted in the brutal beating of Palestinian detainees photographed by a CBS News crew Feb. 25.

A spokesman said Ronnen Sasson was sentenced to 21 days in jail and Arieh Moalem to 10 days, minus four days spent in detention. Two other soldiers and their commanding officer face more serious penalties if convicted.

According to the army, an investigation showed that Moalem and Sasson played a relatively minor part in the incident.