TITLE: Palestinians Fear Non - Clash Deaths

AUTHOR:

PUB: Associated Press

DATE: January 9, 2001

NETZARIM JUNCTION, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Palestinian nurse Abdelhamid al-Khorat worked the late shift at his clinic, then headed home on foot. The walk cost him his life. Al-Khorat, described by relatives as a talented amateur painter, was shot and killed by Israeli troops early Monday along the road leading to his father's house in the scrubby flatlands of the Gaza Strip. The army had declared the area a "no-go'' zone after dark, and military officials said soldiers saw him as a potential threat. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, recent days have seen a notable increase in Palestinians wounded or killed as they go about their daily business. Since the start of the new year, at least five people have been killed by gunfire in or near their homes, or on their way to or from jobs. Throughout the wave of violence -- which began in late September and has claimed more than 360 lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians -- bystanders have occasionally found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, sometimes with fatal consequences. But human rights groups and Palestinians say that for the first time, such casualties appear to be overtaking those among Palestinians taking part in stone-throwing confrontations or gun battles with Israeli troops. Palestinian deaths since the beginning of January have included a 10-year-old boy standing outside his home in the West Bank town of Hebron, a farmer tending his fields in the Gaza Strip, a young woman fatally shot when bullets pierced the walls of her Hebron home, a secretary driving home from work with her brother-in-law in the northern West Bank, and al-Khorat, the nurse, who lived just south of Gaza City. "We all believe this could happen to any of us at any time,'' said Hussein Zakeyas, a 35-year-old Gaza merchant. ``We sometimes feel as if we are carrying our own coffins on our backs.'' In each instance, the army said the person slain was in a restricted area or else that troops were returning from somewhere nearby. Human rights groups cite two recent factors that could be contributing to an upsurge in deaths or injuries among those not participating in clashes: severe restrictions on Palestinians' movement within the West Bank and Gaza, and what is reported to be a freer hand given to Israeli troops deployed in areas that are considered flashpoints. "Before, the great majority of those killed were those who were demonstrating,'' said Noga Kadman of the Israeli human rights group Betselem, which is looking into several of the deaths. While there are no signs posted designating an area as restricted, the army says it informs the population where the areas are. In some "no-go'' areas of the West Bank and Gaza -- such as near al-Khorat's home -- Palestinians are automatically considered a threat if they attempt to pass. But so few people have work these days that those with jobs are often willing to take the risk. "In certain areas ... they have instructions not to move about. If they are there in the night, they are (considered) suspicious,'' said army spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz. In places deemed particularly dangerous for Israeli soldiers -- sites of roadside bombings or of attacks by Palestinian gunmen, for example -- troops are being given greater authority to open fire without their commanders' permission, military sources said this week. The army would not comment on the change in orders, which was also reported in the Israeli media. But in addition to the string of deaths, several other incidents in the past week have suggested soldiers might be exercising greater latitude than under previous rules, which called for using live fire only if a soldier's life is threatened and firing a warning shot first. For example, in the West Bank village of Halhoul, a handcuffed Palestinian man was shot in the leg by soldiers and seriously wounded. The army said he was trying to escape. The Haaretz newspaper said Tuesday that senior officers believed some soldiers were overreacting to perceived threats out of sheer exhaustion and jangled nerves, and that as a result, the army was rotating in more reservists to replace regular troops. Ahmed Abdelatif al-Khorat, a cousin of the slain nurse, said he could not imagine why Israeli troops would have opened fire on his relative. The army said al-Khorat was carrying a bag that appeared suspicious; the cousin said it was probably a change of clothes he sometimes took to work in case he had to sleep over at the clinic. "I think they killed him in cold blood -- they cannot convince me that my cousin posed any danger to them,'' he said. ``He was a very peaceful man.'' END top