A crackdown by Israeli occupation officials brought a quick end today to a general protest strike by Gaza Strip shop owners and public transport drivers which had been called by Arab terrorist groups. But Gaza Strip residents expressed fears of being caught in a squeeze between the terrorist and the Israeli army. Thousands of pamphlets, distributed clandestinely Friday by El Fatah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, urged a week-long general strike against the evacuation of families from Gaza Strip refugee camps to make way for roads to improve security in the camps. Shop owners began to close their places yesterday and bus and taxi drivers stayed home. Some Gaza Strip residents told their Israeli employers on Friday that they might not report for work today because of “transport difficulties.” In fact, authorities said, the residents feared the murderous activities of terrorists who have slam hundreds of Arabs in the Strip for alleged collaboration with Israeli authorities, On Saturday morning, the strike appeared to be a success. Then Israeli army engineering corps units began to move from one closed shop to another and sealing the doors. Within minutes other shop owners reappeared and rushed to open their shops.
Government officials also visited the homes of the striking bus and taxi drivers to warn them they would lose their licenses. Soon buses and taxis began reappearing on the streets. As life began to return to normal this morning, residents told Israeli officials: “We are pressed between Fatah and the Israeli army and we are afraid of both. What shall we do?” The resumption of public transport came too late to prevent a substantial drop in the numbers of Gaza Strip residents reporting to Jews in Israel. Officials said only a few thousand, rather than the known 8,000 such workers, reported for work today. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities resumed today the transfer of refugees from camps to alternative housing in El Arish in northern Sinai and in the West Bank. Evacuation was continued in the Shati and Jebaliyah camps where work was pushed on creation of new roads for security. The first 40 families in the Raffah camp, one of the largest in the Strip, were evacuated today and transferred to other flats. Later today, two Israeli army officers toured Gaza and the surrounding area. Gen. David Elazar, chief of General Headquarters, and Gen. Aric Sharon, chief of the Southern Command, reported that conditions had largely returned to normal, with shops almost all open but with fewer than the usual number of people in the streets. Public transport was virtually normal. Officials said they believed that intellectuals among the Arabs in Gaza and the Strip were the driving force behind the aborted general strike.
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