Steel helmeted Israeli troops mounted on jeeps patroled the streets of Nablus today in the aftermath of stone-throwing demonstrations by hundreds of students and adults which erupted there and in other West Bank towns and Gaza. Nablus Mayor Hamdi Kanaan resigned today, saying he could “do nothing for the town anymore.” Nablus, with a population of 80,000, is the largest West Bank town.
A curfew was clamped on the old part of the town where mobs smashed windows, set rubbish fires and stoned policemen. Youths poured out of their classrooms shouting “long live Nasser” in what was ostensibly a demonstration for the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdel Moneim Riad, who was killed Sunday during an Egyptian-Israeli artillery battle along the Suez Canal. Witnesses said at least five Arab youths were injured. Two persons were reported arrested after youngsters cornered a group of Israeli policemen in an intersection and pelted them with stones. Students and adults swarmed through the streets unfurling Palestine Liberation Front banners. Policemen were stoned in Gaza today where girls from the Dir el Balah high school blocked the main road. Authorities closed the school until further notice.
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