Militant Jewish settlers who wounded four Arabs they accused of throwing rocks have been served notice that the full weight of the law will be brought to bear if they are found to have acted in an illegal manner.
The incident, which raised tensions to a boiling point in the Hebron area, occurred when a group of settlers said to support the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s extremist Kach movement appointed themselves a “committee for security on the roads” and went on “patrol.”
In the A-Sheikh neighborhood of Hebron, the group was attacked by rocks, which slightly injured two Jewish children and a woman. In response, one of the settlers opened fire in the direction of the barrage.
Four Arab residents were subsequently admitted to Mokassed hospital in East Jerusalem, with light to moderate bullet wounds.
Deputy Defense Minister Ovadia Eli rushed to the scene to calm tempers and to warn the settlers against taking the law into their hands.
The Israel Defense Force issued a communique later saying the incident was under investigation by the Hebron police.
It was the latest in a series of clashes between Jews and Arabs in the West Bank town.
On Friday, about 200 residents of Kiryat Arba, a Jewish township adjacent to Hebron, blocked a square in the center of the Arab town.
The Jewish crowd was protesting what it called the “ineptitude” of the IDF in dealing with stone-throwers.
Deputy Minister Eli warned the Kiryat Arba town council that the army was running out of patience with settler vigilantism.
When a Kach supporter shouted that the government should deport all Arabs, Eli said he was “disgusted” with “racist ideas.”
“We act with the power of morality, not with the morals of power,” he declared.
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