WEST BANK: International observers withdraw from Hebron after Palestinians attack their headquarters over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed

Record ID: 565345

  • Title: WEST BANK: International observers withdraw from Hebron after Palestinians attack their headquarters over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
  • Date: 9th February 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF WORKERS WEARING HELMETS AND PROTECTIVE VESTS PREPARING TO LEAVE COMPOUND
  • Embargoed: 24th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA49SZPVVZUW9Y8RTPWZSIATLWQ
  • Story Text: International monitors temporarily pulled out of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday (February 8) after Palestinians attacked their headquarters in protest at European cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
    Arnstein Overkil, the Norwegian head of Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), said his staff were leaving because of the damage to their offices, but he said they would return.
    TIPH workers, heavily protected by both Israeli and Palestinian security men and wearing helmets and flak jackets, took their personal belongings out of the building and loaded it into cars. Israeli security escorted the TIPH convoy out of Hebron.
    Earlier, hundreds of Palestinians threw stones at the headquarters of TIPH, smashing windows in protest at the newspaper cartoons deemed blasphemous by Muslims.
    Palestinian police fired in the air to try to disperse the protesters. Some TIPH personnel took to the roof of their headquarters and waved the mission's flag.
    TIPH, staffed by about 160 personnel from Denmark, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey, was established following the killing of 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron by a Jewish settler in 1994.
    The observers' mandate is to monitor and report "efforts to maintain normal life" in the city, where 500 Jewish settlers and 130,000 Palestinians live.
    A wave of anger has swept the Muslim world over the publication of the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. Muslims have denounced the caricatures as an insult to Islam.
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