9 More Arabs Wounded; Muslim Leader Assails Shultz Peace Bid

JERUSALEM —  Soldiers shot and wounded nine Arabs in street battles after weekly Muslim prayers Friday, and the prayer leader at the Al Aqsa mosque condemned the peace plan offered by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Mohammed Siam told worshipers, “It is known that the United States does not give people their true rights.”

Young Palestinians chanted anti-Israeli slogans, raised black mourning flags and threw rocks at soldiers after services at mosques in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, which have been swept by violence since Dec. 9.

Most protests dispersed quickly, however, on what proved one of the quieter Muslim Sabbaths in four months.

Homes of 8 Villagers Leveled

Meanwhile, soldiers demolished the houses of eight more Arab villagers suspected of involvement in the slaying of an Israeli teen-ager, despite an army report that indicated the girl might have been killed by a stray Israeli bullet, not a rock thrown by an Arab.

Tirza Porat, 15, was the first Israeli civilian to die in the unrest. The teen-ager was hiking near the West Bank village of Beita with 15 other youths and two adult security guards Wednesday when they became involved in a clash with rock-throwing Arab villagers.

One of the guards shot and killed two Palestinians and wounded two others. Porat was struck in the head with a rock thrown by the mother and sister of one of the Arab victims, authorities said.

The slaying of the teen-ager prompted calls for revenge from angry Jewish settlers and several government leaders, including Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who told mourners at the girl’s funeral Thursday that “God will avenge her blood.”

Harsh Crackdown

In a harsh crackdown that followed the slaying, the army shot and killed one Arab youth who allegedly resisted arrest Thursday, detained more than 30 other villagers, cut off electricity and water supplies and imposed a round-the-clock curfew on the town’s 4,000 residents.

Army spokesmen had said Wednesday that the girl died of a blow to the head from a large stone thrown by Arabs, but results of an army report leaked the next day indicated that she may have been shot inadvertently by an Israeli.

The army confirmed Friday that the teen-ager was shot in the head during the clash. An army spokesman said the girl was also struck by a rock, and he added the cause of death had not been determined.

Residents of the Elon Moreh settlement, where the girl lived, told reporters Friday that they knew Wednesday she had been struck by a bullet. Teen-agers who survived the clash told of seeing an Arab man with an automatic rifle on a rooftop during the confrontation.