JERUSALEM, Nov. 8 -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed as many as four Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday, an Israeli military spokesman and Palestinian security officials said, bringing to at least nine the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the past two days.
The Israeli military spokesman said that the capture of the top Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin on Friday led to rioting and firefights in the West Bank town, 45 miles north of Jerusalem, in which at least one Palestinian was killed.
After the arrest of Amjad Abeidi, 35, Israeli troops on Saturday conducted intense searches in Jenin for weapons that Abeidi had allegedly planned to use in suicide bombings and other attacks in Jerusalem and the port city of Haifa, the spokesman said. Abeidi was wanted in connection with numerous attacks on Israelis
During the searches, Israeli soldiers came under attack by Palestinian gunmen and stone-throwers who also lobbed homemade bombs at the force, the spokesman said. He added that a Palestinian man climbed onto an Israeli armored vehicle during the assault, apparently to attack the soldiers inside, and was shot dead.
Palestinian hospital officials identified the dead man as Mohammed Salah, 19. Israeli military officials said he was a member of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, in Jenin.
In Burkin, a small town about two miles west of Jenin, Israeli soldiers also came under a shower of stones and bricks from dozens of Palestinians, the spokesman said. The troops fired warning shots to disperse the crowd; during the exchange a 14-year-old stone-thrower was reportedly killed. The Israeli spokesman said that all the warning shots were fired into the air, but that the military was investigating reports that a boy had been shot.
Two Palestinians were also killed in the West Bank on Friday.
In the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli military spokesman said that soldiers spotted two men crawling toward the border fence in the Abu Safeyah area of Beit Hanoun at about 4 a.m. Saturday and opened fire. After sunrise, the spokesman said, the bodies of two men were found, both unarmed but carrying two pairs of large scissors, apparently for cutting through the fence to enter Israel.
In a separate development Saturday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the prime minister-designate, Ahmed Qureia, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah that they had resolved their dispute over who would be the next interior minister and how responsibility for Palestinian security agencies would be parceled out. The pair have been arguing about security issues for more than six weeks, delaying appointment of a new government and stalling resumption of peace talks with the Israelis.
It appeared Saturday that Qureia had backed down and agreed to appoint a longtime Arafat stalwart, Hakam Balawi, as interior minister, rather than his own favorite, Gen. Nasser Yusef. Qureia had also demanded that all security forces be under the control of the interior minister, but he relented on that issue as well, agreeing that the forces would be run by a newly appointed, 12-member National Security Council headed by Arafat.
