Israel Death Comes At Ramadan

The trouble began just before dawn. Observing the ritual for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Palestinians in the West Bank village of Nahalin last week ended their prayers at the village mosque before sunrise and prepared for another day of fasting. Suddenly about 100 rifle-toting Israeli border policemen swarmed into Nahalin to make arrests, imposing a curfew on its 3,000 residents. Shouting vulgar insults, the Israelis started searching for young Palestinians suspected of stoning the cars of Jewish settlers traveling on nearby roads. Confronted by a stone-throwing mob, the policemen opened fire, killing a 28-year-old laborer named Riyadh Abu Gayadeh.

That touched off one of the bloodiest incidents since Palestinians began their intifadeh in December 1987. Villagers said their tempers had flared earlier in the week when Jewish settlers uprooted trees in the area and Israeli soldiers patrolling the rural village shouted obscenities at local women. When word spread of Abu Gayadeh's killing, the enraged villagers poured out of their houses and attacked the policemen. "As we say in Arabic, patience has limits," said Ahmed, 45, a farmer who would give only his first name. "They pushed us to attack them."

In the ensuing clashes, which Palestinians called a "massacre," the Israelis shot and killed four more villagers and wounded 25 others. The next day, Israeli troops sealed off the main cities in the West Bank. For the first time, Palestinians from the territories were prohibited from praying at Jerusalem's al Aqsa Mosque. But seven more Palestinians were shot and killed in rioting that broke out in the West Bank.

In a rare legal move against Jewish settlers, an Israeli court last week indicted one of their leaders, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, 54, for manslaughter. The court charged that the Israeli shot an Arab shopkeeper to death and wounded another in the city of Hebron last fall, after Palestinians stoned his car. The indictment stunned Levinger's followers, who have asserted their right to protect themselves with guns.

< The surge in violence seemed to undermine plans by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to cool off the uprising by holding elections in the occupied territories. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis appear ready to end their violent confrontation.