Protesters Hurl Rocks At Israelis Palestinian Leader Warns ‘Worst Is Yet To Come’ In Middle East

Palestinians protesting Israel’s three-week blockade of this biblical city threw stones and bottles Saturday at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Israel has gradually lifted some of the restrictions it imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last month that killed 16 people, including the two bombers. But the 60,000 residents of Bethlehem are still barred from leaving their town.

Israel reportedly suspects that the masterminds of the blast, leading figures in the Islamic militant group Hamas, are hiding in Bethlehem, five miles south of Jerusalem.

About 300 Palestinians marched from the center of town to Rachel’s Tomb, an Israeli enclave guarded by Israeli troops. About 150 people threw stones and empty bottles at the soldiers. Protesters also burned an Israeli flag.

“The Israeli government should know that we as a nation will never be humiliated,” said a 19-year-old stone thrower, his face masked by a white T-shirt. “They will lift the closure or we will burn the ground underneath their feet.”

Palestinian police wearing gas masks looked on but did not intervene. No injuries were reported.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat predicted Saturday that relations with Israel would deteriorate further.

“The worst is yet to come,” Arafat told Palestinian journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah. In a veiled threat of violence, he said the Palestinians’ options were open, but would not say what the options were. “No one reveals their cards,” he said.

Israel imposed a blanket closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the Jerusalem market bombing. The action barred all Palestinians, including 100,000 laborers, from entering Israel.

Israel also enforced an internal closure, preventing Palestinians from leaving their towns and villages. That has gradually been lifted, and only the Bethlehem area remains under blockade.

Bethlehem’s acting mayor, Hanna Nasser, participated in the march but not the stone throwing. He said the siege was choking his city, which is largely dependent on tourism.

Some tourist buses have been allowed to come in, but individual visitors have been turned away at Israeli army roadblocks.

Last month, Palestinian security forces uncovered a Hamas bomb factory in the town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. Israeli media have had conflicting reports on whether the explosives found there were the same type as those used in the bombing.

After the bombing, Israel also withheld millions of dollars in tax refunds it owes the Palestinian Authority.

It has since released some of the money, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that the rest would not be transferred until Arafat arrests large numbers of Hamas activists.

Israeli leaders were infuriated this week when Arafat met with opposition groups, including Hamas leaders, in a carefully staged show of Palestinian unity.

Arafat said Israel was punishing the Palestinians without cause, saying he believed the two suicide bombers came from abroad and not from areas under his control.

“This is robbery. … Why this injustice and humiliation? Because the target is the peace process,” Arafat said.

Despite Arafat’s tough words, a statement released Friday night after the weekly Palestinian Cabinet meeting said the security cooperation between Israel, the Palestinians and the United States would continue.

Also Saturday, about 150,000 students who study at U.N. schools in Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip staged a strike protesting the organization’s decision to charge tuition.

The schools are run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. Until now, students did not have to pay tuition, but officials say they had to start charging because of a $20 million budget deficit.

Arafat said the Palestinians and agency Commissioner Peter Hansen have started contacting donors to help cover the deficit.