Israelis reeling from a string of terrorist attacks against civilians in recent days heard an unsettling prediction this week from one of their top generals.
Palestinian attacks against Jews will likely increase as the Middle East peace process resumes, Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, the outgoing commander of the Israeli army’s central front, warned Wednesday.
Attacks will be encouraged both from opponents of the peace talks as well as supporters who want to use terror “to push Israel into the corner,” Yatom said.
To make his point, Yatom observed that recent murders in the Gaza Strip have been attributed to the Fatah Hawks, an armed group affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mainstream faction led by Yasir Arafat, who supposedly supports the peace talks.
The string of fatal clashes between Palestin- ians and Israelis continued Wednesday, as undercover troops shot dead an Arab youth outside Jerusalem and a group of Arab youths stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli soldier in the Galilee town of Nazareth.
The attack in Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel proper, was rare, since Israelis and tourists have long been considered safe in the city, even as the intifada raged in the administered territories.
Earlier in the week, two Palestinians brutally murdered their Jewish employer in the Gaza Strip, and several hours later an Arab was shot dead by Israeli civilians who were returning to the strip from the funeral of their fellow settler.
Last week, an Israeli driver was stoned and shot dead when he mistakenly entered a Gaza Strip refugee camp, and in a separate incident, a laborer from Gaza went on a stabbing spree in downtown Tel Aviv, killing two Jews.
At a news conference to mark the end of his tenure in his current job, Yatom said that despite the recent rise in the use of firearms by Palestinians — there were some 151 shooting incidents in 1992, compared to 132 in 1991 — there have been improvements in the overall security situation.
He said that the local Palestinian population cooperates less with gunmen wanted by the Israelis than in the past.
In the fatal shooting of an Arab youth by undercover troops shortly before Yatom made his comments, Palestinian witnesses claimed the soldiers’ lives were not endangered.
The army maintained that the soldiers came under a stone-throwing attack at a road junction near the northern entrance to Jerusalem and chased after the Palestinians.
But Dr. Ahmad Tibi, a well-known Israeli Arab who witnessed the incident, said the soldiers were not stoned during the chase, but continued firing at the fleeing youths.
Meanwhile, the tense situation in Gaza showed no signs of letting up, with an Israeli bus driver being lightly wounded there Wednesday, when his bus was fired upon by a passing car.
Dahdoul was arrested Feb. 28 in the West Bank village of Ramallah, and was, like the other Palestinians detained, accused of engaging in hostile anti-Israel activities on behalf of Hamas.
Like Mohammed Salah, 39, and Mohammed Jarrad, 38, Dahdoul entered Israel in mid-January. All three are said to have been sent here by Hamas to help rebuild the organization from setbacks experienced since the December deportations to Lebanon of some 400 of its members.
Another Arab American was also arrested a month ago on suspicion of being a Hamas agent, but was released shortly afterward.
Dahdoul’s attorney, Jawad Boulos, said his client commuted between his hometown of El-Bireh and the United States frequently since first leaving 10 years ago.
Dahdoul, an engineer, is married with four children and had come to visit his wife, Iman, and family, who live most of the year in El-Bireh.
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