U.S. Denounces Israel’s Use of Plastic Bullets

WASHINGTON — The Reagan Administration on Wednesday strongly denounced Israel’s use of plastic bullets to break up Palestinian demonstrations but stopped short of threatening to cut Israeli aid.

“We are disturbed by the rise in casualties to Palestinians in recent clashes with the Israeli military,” State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said. “We can see no justification for a policy admittedly designed to cause an increase in casualties.”

Directed at Legs

On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told reporters that the plastic bullets, now used to quell Arab disturbances in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, are deliberately intended to increase the number of wounds but not to kill. The bullets are directed principally at the legs of protesters, according to army officials.

At the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the Administration has “consistently opposed the use of lethal force in controlling the situation in the occupied territories. While we recognize Israeli responsibility to maintain law and order, we believe it should be done with appropriate restraint.”

He added that U.S. officials “will continue to make our views known” through diplomatic channels. Administration officials said that while they object to the policy, aid to Israel will not be used as leverage in U.S. efforts to curb use of the plastic bullets.

“The aid issue is not one we will put into this,” said one official, who requested anonymity.

Instead, U.S. officials will try to convince Israelis that continued use of the bullets “can only hurt Israel’s image” in the international community, the official said.

Are They Less Deadly?

Meanwhile, it is far from clear that in the close confines of urban warfare, plastic bullets are much less deadly than lead bullets. There is some indication, moreover, that relaxed rules on the use of plastic bullets may be leading to an increase in the use of various sorts of projectiles.

Israeli newspapers have noted that with the new policy on plastic bullets, soldiers formerly authorized to fire only in “life-threatening” situations now may fire at rock-throwing protesters regardless of the circumstances--and aim may be as important as the type of bullet fired.

Even as the new policy takes hold, deaths as well as injuries are mounting. In the past week at least seven Arabs have died at the hands of Israeli soldiers; three of the victims were hit with plastic bullets.

And in the past three days, more than 80 Arabs have been wounded. Since December, when the intifada, or uprising, began, more than 250 Arabs have been killed and thousands wounded.

Causing More Deaths

U.N. relief workers have charged that the wider use of plastic bullets is the cause of the surge in deaths and injuries.

Hani Abdin, a physician at Jerusalem’s Makassed Hospital, where many wounded Arabs from the West Bank are treated, said, “We are seeing wounds on all parts of the body.”

He said that until recently, it had been rare at the hospital to see bullet wounds to the head. But in the past week, he said, five Palestinians with such wounds have been treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Nivam Nasser, 27, is one of them. Relatives said he tried to flee his home in Nablus two nights ago when soldiers came to arrest him. The troops fired at his legs, but he continued to run.

The bullet that hit him in the head was evidently made of lead, doctors said. X-rays clearly show metal bullet fragments.

Also Shot in Head

Two other shooting victims in the hospital’s intensive care unit had also been shot in the head but had no other wounds. One of them, Mohammed Fausi Abdel, 24, was shot Monday in Nablus during a clash with soldiers. He had just been released from a six-month stay in jail when he joined a demonstration.

The bullet that pierced his head, like the one in Nasser’s head, is fragmented. And doctors said that like Nasser, Abdel too has only a few days to live.

Soldiers shot the other victim, Raed Kilan, 22, in the eye during the Monday demonstration in Nablus, and he now lies in critical condition. The type of bullet that struck him has not been determined because the pieces are embedded near the base of the brain and cannot be removed.

At the State Department, Oakley, asked if the United States will urge Israel to resume using rubber bullets, said the Administration has “never specified the types of crowd control measures that should be used. What we’ve talked about is the avoidance of lethal measures, the need for restraint.”

‘No License to Do It’

And although plastic bullets are manufactured in the United States “for training purposes,” they are not exported to Israel, according to Fitzwater. “There was no license to do it,” he said.

At one point during her briefing, Oakley was asked if the United States had received any assurances from Israel that it would change its policy of seeking increased casualties. Oakley said the United States is “in the process of following up with them, of presenting our views.”