Babies tear-gassed

Hebron (Agencies) - Dozens of Palestinian children, including babies, were overcome by tear-gas when Israeli troops dispersed scuffling Arabs and Jews yesterday in the West Bank town of Hebron, hospital sources said.

The Gaza-based Palestinian self-rule authority accused Israel of allowing Hebron's Jewish settlers to harass and endanger the city's Palestinian citizens.

The settlers had tried to tear down a Palestinian flag at a girls' school and raise an Israeli one. Arab men and women joined in the fracas, and soldiers used tear-gas, witnesses said. Children at the school and babies at a nearby nursery were overcome by fumes and taken to hospital. All but one were later released.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of Israelis blew whistles and banged drums near Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's house yesterday evening. Police turned water cannons on the crowd, then sprayed them with blue dye.