WEST BANK: Israeli army demolishes West Bank outpost, settlers sabotage Palestinian property in response

Record ID: 560857

  • Title: WEST BANK: Israeli army demolishes West Bank outpost, settlers sabotage Palestinian property in response
  • Date: 26th October 2008
  • Summary: MORE OF POLICEMEN AT SITE VARIOUS OF SECURITY FORCES AT SITE, BULLDOZER DEMOLISHING BUILDINGS SOLDIERS ARRESTING SETTLER MORE OF SECURITY
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA512S2X3Z4EPYMHO5T2TSUGUQU
  • Story Text: Israeli security forces evacuated an illegal outpost near the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday night (October 25), after which Jewish settlers sabotaged Palestinian property in the area.
    An Israeli army spokesman told Reuters the army, together with police and border police arrived at an illegal outpost near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba to evacuate it.
    Witnesses added that several of the settlers were arrested for trying to resist the evacuation, while others began sabotaging Palestinian cars.
    Palestinians resident in the area said that Jewish settlers also vandalised a cemetery after the Israeli army razed an outpost built by a militant settler leader without government authorisation.
    Residents of Harat al-Jabari neighbourhood in the city of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, blamed settlers for spraying paint on Muslim graves, as well as puncturing the tyres of some 24 cars.
    Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said an investigation had been launched but could not confirm that the vandals were settlers.
    An Israeli army bulldozer demolished the makeshift farm of Noam Federman, a hardline settler leader, just after midnight. Police arrested four settlers who attacked a policeman and tried to set fire to a police car during the evacuation.
    Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who resigned last month over a corruption scandal, condemned settlers who incited violence against Israeli soldiers and policemen and vowed to bring them to justice.
    A U.S.-sponsored "road map" for peace, reaffirmed at the Annapolis summit last year that relaunched Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, calls on Israel to freeze all settlement activity on land Palestinians want for a state.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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