Israeli Soldiers Kill 3 Arabs in West Bank

JERUSALEM — Three Palestinians were killed today in street battles with soldiers in the West Bank, and hundreds of Jerusalem police used tear gas and rubber bullets to stop protests of the unsolved killing of an Arab teen-ager.

A military spokesman said Israeli soldiers shot one of the Arabs to death when he tried to hurl a firebomb at their patrol and the other death was being investigated. He said seven Palestinians were wounded. Later the army announced another death in the Hebron area.

The clashes were the worst in 10 days in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where a revolt against Israeli rule began Dec. 8 among the 1.5-million Palestinian residents. At least 227 Palestinians have been killed and four Israelis have been slain.

In the Christian quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, policemen fired tear gas at several hundred Arabs who started an illegal march in memory of 15-year-old Nidal Fuad Rabadi, who was shot to death in unclear circumstances Tuesday near the Jerusalem city limits.

Police Chief Yosef Yehudai said authorities had no leads in the shooting. He said Rabadi, a Jerusalem resident, had been arrested four times in recent months for throwing stones at cars and buses.

Involvement Denied

Both police and the army have denied involvement in the killing. Arab journalists said Israelis driving to the West Bank may have shot Rabadi when firing at youths who threw rocks at their cars.

Police raided a house near the Rabadi home today and arrested 25 Palestinians, including some allegedly involved in the critical wounding of a border patrolman on Tuesday.

Hassan Muhamad, 21, is one of many members of the Arab Druse minority who serve in Israel’s armed forces. His skull was fractured by a 45-pound concrete cinder-block that was dropped on his head after Rabadi’s funeral.

The Palestinian killed when he tried to throw a firebomb in Shuyukh village, near Hebron, was identified as Zaki Halaykeh, 23. An official at Alia Hospital in Hebron said the man was shot in the back.

Three other young Arabs in Shuyukh were wounded, the army said.

At Jenin in the West Bank, a hospital official said 26-year-old Hisham Zaid died after soldiers shot him in the chest.