Israeli Official Decries Soldiers' Conduct

JERUSALEM--Israel's deputy chief of staff said yesterday some soldiers had committed "totally unacceptable" acts against Palestinians, and hospital officials reported three Arabs wounded by troopers in the West Bank.

Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak also said more than 200 Israelis had been injured, most of them lightly, since Arab riots began December 8 in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He said 53 Palestinians had been killed, but the United Nations puts the number at 54.

Barak confirmed some soldiers had used a bulldozer to bury four Palestinians alive near the West Bank city of Nablus and declared: "This pattern of behavior...is totally unacceptable under the standards of the Israeli Defense Forces and any civilized norms. Whoever is found responsible for this event will be punished."

Neighbors rescued the four Arabs shortly after they were buried.

Young Palestinians set fire to a bus yesterday, burned tires and built road blocks in the occupied territories and Arab east Jerusalem, where a general strike virtually closed down Arab communities and neighborhoods.

Riot police stopped a bus carrying Israeli Arab high school students from school in Haifa to their homes in Umm al Fahm and beat several of them, the daily newspaper Al Hamishmar reported.

An official at Umm al Fahm confirmed the report to The Associated Press. Police declined comment.

Transport Minister Chaim Corfu appeared to suggest Israel bombed a ferry that was to carry Arab deportees from a Cyprus port to Israel. If the Palestine Liberation Organization obtained another vessel, he said, "Its fate will be the same."

"We knew we wouldn't allow the boat to reach Israel," Corfu said on Israel radio. "If we could prevent its departure, that was obviously the right thing to do."

In the West Bank, a soldier punched and shoved an Israeli cameraman working for NBC News.

The soldier said he asked the cameraman, Ofir Moradov, to stop filming a protest, but NBC correspondent Martin Fletcher said Moradov did not hear the request. The army said the soldier was convicted of "unbecoming conduct," but would not reveal his name or the sentence.

Barak said soldiers had no choice but to use beatings in an attempt to curb the riots.

"Whatever amount of force is needed...is something that in my judgment is forced upon us by the situation," Barak told a news conference of foreign reporters.

"We can't easily put the realities of life into a simple set of orders. The situation created during the control of a violent riot is much more complicated than it might seem," Barak said.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said on a visit to Italy: "We want to put an end to the riots and restore normal life. On the other hand, we don't want to kill people...I hope in the near weeks we will find the most right methods."

"We have to handle it in the most human limitations," Shamir said, addressing a news conference in English. "We have to defend ourselves and at the same time continue our efforts for finding peace."

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, questioned about the beating policy during debate in parliament, said the orders to use force were necessary and "to the best of my knowledge and judgment, are legal."

Barak said the army is succeeding in "gradually [improving] the caliber of behavior of our forces." Barak added that, "We are confronting a new type of threat. We cannot afford to yield to it, and we are not going to."