Three Arab youths were wounded this morning by Israeli soldiers when they attacked a car and its passengers on the Jerusalem-Jericho road near Azaria village on the West Bank. One of the youths, an 11-year-old boy, was in critical condition. The youths, part of a group of students, reportedly swarmed over the car and tried to overturn it. Soldiers inside the car fired into the air to frighten the demonstrators but the three were wounded in the fracas. Security sources said the passengers in the car–civilians and soldiers–are being investigated.
The incident was the latest in the escalation of violence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank where Arab youths have been demonstrating for the past two weeks against Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount and Jewish settlement on the West Bank.
Police used tear gas this morning against about 400 East Jerusalem Arab youths who massed on the Temple Mount and later rampaged through the Old City stoning passers-by and setting fire to rubber tires. Demonstrations also occurred today in Jericho where one high school was closed because of pupil violence and in Hebron where rioting students attacked several residents of the Jewish suburb of Kiryat Arba. The Hebron demonstrators burned tires and threw rocks at security forces, but no serious injuries were reported in those clashes.
A 24-hour curfew imposed on Ramallah Monday remained in force today. Another West Bank Arab village, Chalchul, was put under curfew this morning.
ASSURANCES FAIL TO MOLLIFY ARABS
The riots and demonstrations on the West Bank have worsened in the past few days despite assurances by Israeli authorities that the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount would be enforced. A Jerusalem magistrate had declared the ban illegal last month, a ruling that touched off Arab protests and demonstrations in East Jerusalem and a score of towns and villages on the West Bank.
The government has appealed the ruling and the Supreme Court is expected to uphold its own 1970 decree that banned Jewish religious rites in the vicinity of the Islamic shrines on the Temple Mount.
Justice Minister Haim Zadok said today that none of the regulations regarding the status of the Temple Mount have been altered. But his assurances apparently failed to mollify the Arabs. The Old City was virtually empty of tourists yesterday despite the Purim holiday and Israeli tourists are avoiding the West Bank.
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