A Palestinian youth was killed and several were wounded as violence erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Thursday, the six-month anniversary of the start of the “intifada,” the Palestinian uprising against Israeli control in the territories.
Security sources called the day “one of the stormiest in the territories” since the intifada began last December 9. It shattered a week of relative calm during which many Israeli officials maintained that the uprising was on the wane.
Palestinians in the territories, obeying instructions in leaflet No. 19 circulated by the Palestinian nationalist underground, observed a general strike, which was almost totally effective.
Commerce was at a standstill, and nearly all schools were closed, while residents of the territories marched, demonstrated and clashed with Israeli security forces.
The worst violence occurred in the West Bank. Troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to disperse rioters in Tulkarm and adjacent refugee camps. Curfews were imposed on the town and the camp.
The only reported fatality occurred in Sabastia in the Samaria district, where troops removing a barricade shot a 19-year-old Palestinian who stoned them.
Two Palestinians were wounded by gunfire when riots broke out in the Nablus casbah. One Palestinian, Ruhi Mohammad Alia of Sair village near Hebron, died of a heart attack when his car was stoned outside the Dehaishe refugee camp south of Bethlehem.
Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at vehicles in Gaza. No one was hurt.
Meanwhile, Feisal Husseini, a Palestinian activist who heads the Arab Studies Center in Jerusalem, was released Thursday after six months of administrative detention.
Often described as “the leading Palestine Liberation Organization activist in the Jerusalem area,” he was arrested in December for alleged “subversive activities.”
Speaking to reporters on his release, Husseini denied subversion and said the Israeli authorities never told him why he was detained.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
