Israeli Troops Fire on Hundreds of Rioting Arab Inmates, Kill 2

EREZ CHECKPOINT, Israeli-Occupied Gaza Strip — Israeli troops Tuesday fired on hundreds of rioting Palestinians at a controversial Negev Desert prison camp, killing two and wounding one, the army said.

The riot erupted in the camp at Ketziot, about 20 miles southeast of the Gaza Strip, after news reached inmates about unrest in the occupied territories and the imposition of a curfew over the weekend in Gaza, Israel Television said.

An army spokesman said that one of those killed was from the Gaza Strip and the other was from the West Bank village of Yamun north of Nablus.

The riot broke out Tuesday afternoon and was over by nightfall, he said.

Special Security Measures

Most of the approximately 2,500 inmates confined at Ketziot have been jailed for up to six months without trial under special security measures designed to suppress the current Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories.

Human rights groups and Palestinian attorneys have complained about poor food and living conditions at the camp, where inmates are held in a series of tents in the scorching desert heat.

In another development, the army said it is removing a colonel from his post as brigade commander because of his involvement in the shooting death of an 18-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Bani Naim.

A military spokesman said the Palestinian, Mohammed Abed Maadi al Zaidan, was participating in a violent protest when he was killed in April. An army investigation determined that he was not threatening the soldiers’ lives when he was shot.

The officer allegedly chased the youth by helicopter before shooting him.

“It was decided the officer, who was brigade commander and responsible for the chase and the shooting, used bad judgment and will be immediately removed from his position,” the spokesman said.

Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip died of burns that he suffered in a suspected arson attack last week near Tel Aviv, Israel radio said.

Two other Arabs were also killed in the torching, which officials have said might be linked to Arab-Israeli tensions. The incident prompted widespread rioting in the Gaza Strip over the weekend and the imposition of the military curfew, which kept 650,000 Gazans inside their homes for the second straight day Tuesday.

In other unrest Tuesday, Israeli troops shot and wounded at least five Palestinians in scattered clashes in the occupied territories, hospital officials said.

During clashes with Arab stone-throwers in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, soldiers seriously wounded three Palestinians, officials at the city’s Ittihad Hospital said.

Troops also shot two refugees at Gaza’s Nusseirat camp during clashes with curfew violators who hurled rocks at them, officials at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City said. The army said dozens of Palestinians were injured in scuffles with police in Gaza.

Officials at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said 75 Palestinians were treated for beating injuries on the head, arms and legs that they received during pre-dawn house-to-house army searches.