An Israeli settler was shot to death in an apparent altercation with an Arab shepherd in the Nablus area of the West Bank Tuesday.
The Arab was killed shortly afterwards by an Israel Defense Force patrol.
There were conflicting versions of the incident, which took place at about the time Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat was beginning his address at the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva.
According to one account, the settler, standing guard at Bracha, a Jewish settlement near Nablus, was attacked by a group of Arabs. One of the assailants grabbed his rifle, shot the settler and then hid in ambush for an approaching IDF patrol.
The Arab exchanged fire with the soldiers and was shot dead.
But according to another version of the event, the Arab and the settler had an argument over land, which turned violent. The Bracha settlers vehemently denied this to reporters.
Settlement leaders immediately demanded that the IDF take new harsher measures.
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