Unrest broke out anew in the West Bank Thursday after three days of relative quiet.
Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up violent demonstrations in Hebron and Salim village near Nablus. A woman resident of Salim was injured by a rubber bullet and hospitalized.
An almost total commercial strike was observed in the West Bank Thursday. Only the Hebron wholesale market remained open. Public transportation was disrupted in the territory and fewer Arab day laborers reported for work in Israel.
Israeli soldiers uprooted dozens of citrus trees along the main road in western Tulkarm, in reaction to the stone barriers set up on the road during the night. Metal spikes were scattered and motor oil poured on the pavement, causing at least one military vehicle to skid and damage itself.
The trees were destroyed because the perpetrators left tracks leading into a citrus grove bordering the road.
The Israel Defense Force meanwhile opened its Ketziot detention camp to the news media for the first time Thursday. Thousands of Palestinians have been confined there since the uprising began in the administered territories last Dec.9.
‘RESPECTABLE’ CONDITIONS
The camp commander told reporters that the soldiers guarding the detainees were under strict orders not to use physical violence. Knesset member Dedi Zucker of the dovish Citizens Rights Movement, who visited the camp earlier in the week, confirmed that physical punishment is not used and conditions are in fact “respectable.”
But the prisoners are strictly segregated. Those from the Gaza Strip are separated from West Bank detainees. Prisoners under administrative detention are kept apart from others. Administrative detainees can be held for up to six months without trial or formal charges brought against them.
All of the inmates are visited frequently by their lawyers, representatives of the International Red Cross and the Israeli Human Rights Association.
In East Jerusalem, 14 Arab merchants charged with disobeying police orders have been released from jail on 1,000 shekels bail each. The merchants refused to comply with police instructions to observe normal business hours or shut down altogether. Instead, they followed the orders of the Palestinian nationalist underground to remain open three hours a day.
The 14 were to have gone on trial Thursday. It was postponed because their lawyers have petitioned Attorney General Yosef Harish to dismiss the charges.
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