Three Israeli soldiers and a civilian were injured in the West Bank on Tuesday, when their car went out of control and crashed into a pole, after coming under a hail of stones near Tulkarm.
Disturbances continued elsewhere in the West Bank, where the Israeli authorities ordered all Arab schools temporarily closed again, only two weeks after they were reopened.
The incident near Tulkarm occurred in the morning, soon after a curfew was lifted. An Israel Defense Force officer, two soldiers and a civilian were riding in the car when it was stoned and the driver lost control.
The four were taken to Tel Hashomer hospital in Ramat Gan, where the IDF officer was reported seriously injured. The others were only slightly hurt.
Arab sources said a 21-year-old Tulkarm resident was wounded later, when IDF soldiers chased the stone-throwers.
In other incidents Tuesday, a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli vehicle in El-Bireh. No one was hurt. Another firebomb was thrown at an IDF patrol in a Gaza market. It failed to ignite. One suspect was seized.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, youngsters returning from school blocked several downtown streets. Soldiers fired rubber bullets to disperse them. No injuries were reported.
The military government in the West Bank announced that all schools in the territory will be shut for two days, beginning Wednesday, because students have been taking to the streets to participate in demonstrations.
The schools and universities had been closed several months for security reasons until the end of May, when the civil administration announced they would be reopened on a staggered schedule. The intention was to resume education for the young and demonstrate a supposed return to normalcy in the territories.
Brig. Gen. Shaike Erez, who heads the civil administration, said the renewed shutdown would affect 1,200 schools and some 300,000 pupils. He said it was a warning to the population that unless law and ordered are maintained, there will be no schools.
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