July 1, 1981

Projections based on partial returns from Israel's general election yesterday showed the two major parties in a close, inconclusive race that appeared to provide Prime Minister Menachem Begin with a chance to form a government based on a slim majority in Parliament. With nearly half of the vote counted, and on the basis of sample precincts, Israeli television predicted that Mr. Begin's Likud bloc and the opposition Labor Party of Shimon Peres would each win 48 or 49 seats in the 120-member Parliament, with a slight edge for Labor. Of the votes counted 10 hours after the polls closed, Labor had won 38.3 percent and the Likud 35.8. But the smaller parties on the left, whose support Labor would need to form a majority coalition, were doing very poorly and were expected to win no more than two or three seats among them. The religious and right-wing parties, potential allies of the Likud, were making a stronger showing, with up to 15 seats predicted for them altogether.

Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser of Australia at the White House. New York is among U.S. cities he will tour. Page A6.

A man who died after he was stripped and chased onto the tracks in a Times Square subway station by a mob of jeering youths and vagrants has been identified as a 26-year-old resident of Torrington, Conn., who was on his way to Washington, D.C., for a job interview. The dead man, Gerard Coury, a former honor student, student leader and football player at Torrington High School who dropped out of college after three years, had initially been described by the transit police as a mentally disturbed man. Mr. Coury's family, however, said he had been lucid and sane -at least until he was attacked twice in 24 hours and robbed of his clothes, suitcase and money. His brother Charles, a child-care worker who lives in Litchfield, Conn., said the New York City Medical Examiner's office had suggested that Mr. Coury might have died of a heart attack brought on by terror, but was now leaning toward the conclusion that he had been electrocuted when he placed his hands on the third rail. Dr. Millard Hyland, the deputy chief medical examiner, issued a statement saying that there would be no conclusions on the cause of death until the results of various tests had been reported.

The Consolidation Coal Company, a subsidiary of Conoco Inc., announced yesterday that it had agreed to form a joint venture with Rheinische Braunkohlenwerke A.G., a major West German mining company generally known as Rheinbraun, to develop up to five new coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania. The deal includes a long-term sales agreement. Consolidation, America's second-largest coal company, said the project could eventually produce 12.5 million tons of coal a year and generate revenues of about $500 million a year (at present coal prices). Marc D. Cohen, a coal analyst for Kidder, Peabody & Company, said the deal, if carried out, would be one of the largest of its kind for steam coal exports and would represent a ''classic'' in terms of how domestic coal companies can go after the booming steam coal export market.

A medical laboratory in New York City that conducts tests to determine whether newborn infants have inherited congenital diseases will be closed by the state tomorrow, according to the State Health Commissioner. All future blood samples from newborn infants will have to be sent to Albany for analysis. The diseases involved can lead to severe mental retardation if they are not rapidly diagnosed and treated, and the laboratory is being closed over the stiff opposition of many New York City physicians. The Commissioner, Dr. David Axelrod, said yesterday that the laboratory - called the Inborn Metabolic Error Screening Program - would be closed despite a commitment from Mayor Koch to provide six months of funds for it until a longer-term solution could be found.