A 17-year-old Arab youth was fatally shot today by Israel Defense Force members during a riot at the Dir Amar Refugee camp near Ramallah. Three other persons were reported wounded at the end of another day of violence in several towns in the West Bank.
In a symbolic gesture, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon toured the trouble spots personally, and then called on the head of the Hebron Village League, Mustafa Dudein. Sharon is seeking to build up the anti-PLO leagues as a counterweight to the pro-PLO mayors on the West Bank.
Dudein said they had not talked about politics, but rather about the needs of the villages in the Hebron area for new development projects.
The officer in charge of the central command, Maj. Uri Or, said tonight he was hopeful the wave of disturbances would now decline. He said today had been quieter than yesterday and also that the violence affected only certain towns — especially Ramallah, El Bireh and the Nablus sector — but 70 percent of the West Bank remained quiet.
Maj. or said in the quiet parts the IDF was hardly present at all and the local people went about their lives as normal. He said as military commander it was his job to keep the area quiet and maintain law and order, enabling the political level of government then to carry through its policies.
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.