Palestinians jailed for releasing names

HEBRON, West Bank - Two dozen Palestinian men, their heads shaved as a mark of shame, cowered on mattresses in their dark cells. They had blankets, but nothing else - no beds, chairs or books.

An older man, alone in a small cubicle, held his head in his hands. The inmates are among about 200 suspected informers for Israel who have been detained or surrendered to Palestinian authorities in the past month.

Many are accused or have confessed to giving Israel's Shin Bet security service names of Palestinian stone-throwers and gunmen involved in four months of clashes with Israeli troops.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's security agents say they had no choice but to launch the campaign, which has also included two executions, televised confessions of informers and radio appeals for others to turn themselves in.

Israel has become increasingly aggressive in recruiting informers, often by blackmail, said Col. Majed Faraj, head of the Preventive Security Service in the West Bank town of Hebron.

Israel's assassination of more than a dozen Palestinian activists, with the help of collaborators, also prompted the crackdown, he said.

The secretive Shin Bet has no spokesman. Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, an army spokesman, would say only that Israel is taking steps necessary to prevent attacks on Israelis, especially after the Palestinian police broke off most security cooperation.

In the Hebron area, 35 suspected informers have turned themselves in, lured by the Palestinian justice minister's promise of lenient treatment. Twenty other Hebron residents have been arrested, among them a street vendor selling mint leaves and parsley who aroused suspicion by hanging around Palestinian stone-throwers.