Palestinians Bomb Israeli Bus

JERUSALEM--Palestinian protesters set fire to a bus and an Israeli civilian shot and wounded an Arab stone-thrower in clashes in the West Bank yesterday.

Two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian guerrilla died in a foggy, predawn skirmish on the Lebanon border.

In the West Bank, Arab reports said seven Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds in clashes with Israeli soldiers. The army said two Arabs were wounded, and soldiers shot three others, including a 10-year-old boy who was in serious condition, in an overnight clash near the village of Burka.

On Israel's northern border, Israeli paratroopers battled with a three-man guerrilla squad that cut through a fence and planned to attack a civilian settlement, army officials said. A guerrilla and two Israeli soldiers were killed, one guerrilla was captured and another one escaped back to Lebanon.

Nine Israelis have been killed in four infiltrations since November. Israeli leaders saw the stepped-up raids as an attempt by Yasser Arafat's Fatah guerrillas to recover lost prestige in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"The PLO is trying to demonstrate its ability to participate in and even to influence the events in the [occupied] territories," Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, armed forces chief of staff, said on Israel Radio. "The influence is actually very small. And they try to act in the way that they know: against civilians."

Israel also protested a PLO-sponsored plan to send 100 deported Palestinians activists back to Israel on a Greek-owned ship scheduled to leave February 10.

Foreign Minister Shimon Perez accused the Greek government of committing an "unfriendly act" by failing to prevent the voyage.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir toured two Gaza Strip refugee camps and vowed to improve living conditions in thesqualid areas, which are said to have spawned muchof the recent violence.

The army announced yesterday that border policeshot and wounded one Palestinian in the leg afterfire bombs were thrown at a patrol. The incidenttook place when a curfew was briefly lifted in theBalata refugee camp near Nablus. Arab reports saidthree were wounded.

According to the army, another Palestinian waswounded when Arab demonstrators in the village ofSair smashed the windshield of a civilian car, andan Israeli suffered head cuts from shatteredglass. A passenger in the same car got out andfired at demonstrators, wounding one, the armysaid.

Hospital officials said four Arabs werewounded, one seriously.

The army revealed that disciplinary action hadbeen taken against two soldiers.

An army spokeswoman said an officer wassuspended after violating orders on the use oflive ammunition in the village of Silwad wherethree Arabs were wounded yesterday, and anenlisted man was sentenced to one month in jailfor stealing cigarettes from a store in Ramallah