Shots Fired at West Bank Protestors
Israeli police fired live rounds into the air Thursday to disperse hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren who blocked a major West Bank road in a show of support for Saddam Hussein.
The march in Dura, a town under Israeli security control, was the tensest confrontation between Israeli troops and Palestinians in weeks of pro-Iraq demonstrations in the West Bank. The demonstrations are triggered by U.S. threats to attack Iraq if U.N. weapons inspectors are not allowed to complete their mission in that country.
To allay fears in the Gulf nations, the Clinton administration has affirmed that it won't use nuclear weapons against Iraq. Robert Bell, senior national security adviser to the president, says the U.S. has lots of conventional weapons to target any Iraqi facilities that contain weapons of mass destruction.
The administration appears to be stepping back from a recent top-level directive on nuclear arms. The directive says that under certain conditions, the U.S. would consider using nuclear weapons against attacking forces. Iraq is suspected of seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal -- one of the conditions in the directive.
In the Dura march, about 800 elementary and high-school students shouted, "With our spirit and our love, we will redeem Iraq!" and "Saddam, Saddam, our beloved, hit Tel Aviv!"
They burned six Israeli and two U.S. flags and held up a banner that demanded, "Why do the Iraqi people have to pay the price for Clinton's affairs?"
Marchers blocked the main road running through Dura with boulders, and hurled rocks at an Israeli police van and settler's cars. The four policemen in the van called for backup, then fired in the air with pistols and assault rifles.
After a while, the shooting stopped and Israeli soldiers started firing tear gas at the demonstrators. Troops chased stone throwers into the fields. Two Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and six were overcome by tear gas.
Until now, Israeli troops have fired only rubber bullets, not live ammunition, at the pro-Iraqi rallies. The Palestinian Authority has banned the rallies, but that ban has been widely ignored.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who paid a heavy price for his open support of Saddam during the 1991 Gulf War, has been neutral in this crisis, saying he would like to see a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
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