Palestinian Police Fire on Protesters; 1 Dies

Yasser Arafat’s security forces opened fire Friday on hundreds of Palestinians who had stormed a jail to protest alleged mistreatment of inmates. One demonstrator was killed and more than a dozen were injured.

Arafat’s Palestinian Authority said several jailed Islamic militants escaped, and it called on prisoners to turn themselves in.

Palestinian police clamped a curfew on Tulkarm and summoned reinforcements from neighboring cities to contain the rioting, one of the most serious challenges to Arafat’s rule since the start of Palestinian autonomy two years ago.

The violence followed Thursday’s protests against the Palestinian Authority in the neighboring town of Nablus--sparked by the death of a detainee whom Palestinian security forces had beaten into a coma.

Prison security chief Akram abu Raja said police opened fire on about 400 protesters--many of them relatives of the inmates--who threw rocks at police outside the Tulkarm jail.

Police gunfire killed Ibrahim Hadaydeh, a protester and former inmate, witnesses said. But the Palestinian Authority claimed that gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas mingled among the crowd and opened fire during the storming of the compound. It said the gunmen fired the fatal shots.

Many of the inmates were Islamic militants rounded up during a spring crackdown after a series of suicide bombings in Israel. Several were on a hunger strike to press for their release.

One escapee who requested anonymity said that guards at the prison left the inmates alone after rioting began and that prisoners were able to walk away.

The Israeli army, which still controls access roads into and out of the city, sealed the area. The army said it had deployed more troops outside Tulkarm and allowed extra Palestinian troops into town at the request of the Palestinian Authority.