Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian olive groves in the northern West Bank villages of Tell and Madma south of Nablus protesting evacuation of an illegal settlement outpost on Monday.
According to Ghassan Dughlus, a Palestinian Authority official in charge of settlement activity in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces evacuated an illegal outpost near the village of Sinjil on Monday morning. Angered about the evacuation, settlers set fire to Palestinian fields near Yizhar settlement south of Nablus.
Dughlus was also quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying that 10 settlers riding horses and carrying torches set fire to between 1,500 and 2,000 olive trees.
Firefighters were sent to the fields in an attempt to put out the flames. A Palestinian photojournalist also said he was assaulted by settlers when he attempted to cover the incident.
Settlers also threw stones at Palestinian cars and blocked the road near the Huwwara checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus. Two Palestinian motorists were lightly injured and five cars damaged, according to Dughlus. Israeli soldiers clashed with the settlers, ultimately arresting two, and escorting the others away from the scene. Palestinian cars were also attacked in the city of Hebron.
The settlers’ attacks on Palestinians were a continuation of what they call a “price tag” campaign, in which they respond violently whenever outposts are removed by the Israeli government.
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli settlers abducted a Palestinian shepherd south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, Palestinian and Israeli sources reported.
The shepherd was identified as 24-year-old, Mohammad Abdallah Suleiman, a resident of the village of Sumu. The settlers seized Suleiman after he allegedly infiltrated the nearby Israeli settlement of Otni’el.
Officials at the Palestinian Coordination Office, Suleiman was handed over to the Israeli army, and is still under arrest.
Hebron – Ma'an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning.
According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.
One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha'er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah.
One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.
Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said.
Neighboring villages called on for help
Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call.
When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa.
Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured:
31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh,
26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot,
26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh,
35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and
24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil
The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day's events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves.
Revenge attack
On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe.
The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week's attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls' school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack.
On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident.
"At 4:00 pm, Israeli soldiers and the Ma'on settlement security guard took three Palestinian boys, ages 10, 11, and 14, and transported them Ma'on settlement. Soldiers delivered the children to six masked settlers who beat the children, kicking and punching them. At 4:45, the children arrived back in their village, after the settlers allowed them to leave to walk home through the hills alone."
"Earlier the same day settlers shot at a teenage Palestinian shepherd as he grazed his sheep near Juwayya. This is the second time settlers have shot at Juwayya residents over the last ten days. On 25 March, twenty Israeli settlers left the settlement of Ma'on and shot at Palestinian shepherd grazing their sheep on land belonging to the village of Juwayya. During the incident, four Israeli soldiers and the security guard of the Ma'on settlement were present and did not interfere with the settlers. The shepherds refused to leave their land, despite the danger."
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Dozens of Israeli settlers backed by police took over a Palestinian house in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Ma'an’s correspondent observed settlers raiding the house of Naser Jaber, in the As-Sa'diyeh neighborhood of the Old City. A scuffle took place between the owner and the settlers before police intervened, allowing the settlers to take control of the house and sending the owner away.
Israeli police then imposed a neighborhood lock down, prohibiting residents from entering or leaving their homes. Several youth were seized during ensuing clashes in the tense half hour between the arrival of the settlers and the total-closure of the area.
Jaber went immediately to the court to put forward his case, saying he was going to demand the removal of the settlers from his residence, which is home to eight. Jaber noted that the small area of the Old City is home to seven other families and said there had been a repeated settler presence in the area over the past months.
(flag counter added Feb 26, 2009)
