Several hundred Jewish settlers from Kiryat Arba rampaged through Hebron on Tuesday night, firing weapons in an admitted pursuit of revenge for a spate of rock-throwing attacks on Jewish vehicles earlier in the evening.
Three Israelis were injured in the rock-throwing incidents.
The settlers smashed windows, burned cars and tried to set fire to Arab houses in the largely Arab city of 70,000.
A large contingent of the Israel Defense Force rushed to Hebron and gradually restored order. The troops promptly closed the road to Kiryat Arba, the Jewish township that overlooks Hebron.
Soldiers opened fire on Arab youths after being struck by stones. A 17-year-old Arab struck in the head by a bullet was taken to Mokassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, where he was reported in serious condition.
Relations have long been tense between the Arabs of Hebron and the Jews of Kiryat Arba, a stronghold of the militant Gush Emunim settlers movement. This is partly because Jews from Kiryat Arba have established their own heavily protected enclave in the heart of Hebron.
The Jewish settlers have also made retaliatory forays against Hebron Arabs many times in the past.
But the latest incident, involving 300 to 500 settlers, was by far the largest and most serious to date, according to Aharon Domev, head of the Security Information Center in Hebron.
SHOOTING AND SMASHING PROPERTY
The provocations began at about 7:30 p.m. local time, when dozens of Arab youngsters threw rocks at an Egged bus halted by a road barricade near Hebron.
Some of the passengers who were armed opened fire, scattering the rock-throwers. But the same bus was involved in another stoning incident later.
At about 8 p.m., Yechiel Leiter, a Jewish settler from Hebron, was stoned as he drove into the city.
He dashed from his car, wielding a gun, but was struck in the head by a rock. His weapon fired accidentally, the bullet lodging in the leg of a friend.
News of these incidents enraged the Kiryat Arba Jews, who drove into Hebron shooting and smashing property.
Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Jewish settlers in Hebron, blamed the stonings on the Israeli government’s new peace plan calling for Palestinian elections and eventual self-rule.
He claimed the Arabs interpreted the offer as “a surrender to terror” and demanded that the government resign and hold new elections.
One of the principal architects of the peace plan is Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a politician with solid right-wing credentials.
But the settlers are now charging that Shamir “has deserted us,” and they are promising more trouble.
People “who feel their lives are in danger shoot,” one settler said. “We have no other choice than to take the matter into our own hands.”
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