AFP – Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinians in the divided West Bank city of Hebron on November 29, …
Sun Nov 30, 5:11 am ET
HEBRON, West Bank (AFP) – Jewish hardliners rampaged through the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron overnight slashing the tyres and smashing the windscreens of some 30 Palestinian vehicles, Palestinian police said.
Israeli police said the tyres of a security force jeep were also slashed and one young Jewish settler arrested.
The violence came amid a standoff between the hardliners and the army over a four-storey house where settlers and their supporters are defying a High Court eviction order.
The disputed property was seized in March 2007 by dozens of settlers who have dubbed it the "House of Peace.
They have remained in the building despite the November 16 court ruling that the documents they had submitted in support of their claim to title were forgeries.
The court gave them three days to quit the property on pain of eviction by police but so far the security forces have taken no action to remove them.
Five people were wounded in Hebron on Saturday in clashes between settlers and Palestinians outside the disputed house, the Israeli army and witnesses said.
"At least three Palestinians were hurt by stones being thrown and were taken to hospital," a witness said. "The settlers also shot at the Palestinians but did not wound anyone."
An army spokeswoman said "two settlers were wounded, and the army, border guards and police were trying to separate the two sides."
With more than 170,000 Palestinian residents, Hebron is the largest city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank apart from annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
It has long been a flashpoint because of a settler enclave of around 600 hardline Jews in the heart of the city, and a further 6,500 settlers living in Kiryat Arba on the outskirts.