by Amos Harel, Eli Ashkenzi, Haaretz Correspondent and Itim. 13/06/2006
Police on Tuesday detained 20 settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron after they hurled rocks, bricks and glass bottles at Israel Defense Forces soldiers and police. A policeman was lightly wounded in the riot.
The rioting took place next to a Palestinian house where the IDF was securing the construction of a wall to protect its inhabitants from settlers.
The Palestinian inhabitants, living in proximity with Jewish houses, were forced to leave their home due to unrelenting attacks by settlers. The IDF recently began securing the Palestinian house in order to allow the inhabitants to return to their home.
The settlers say that a Palestinian house in their neighborhood poses a threat to their personal security. The police said it will “exercise determination and zero tolerance against lawbreakers and anyone who harms police or soldiers.”
Later on Tuesday the High Court of Justice rejected a request by the Jewish community of Hebron to issue an injunction against the construction of a wall around the Palestinian house.
Farmers suspect settlers cut down olive trees
Palestinian farmers suspect that settlers are behind the vandalizing of some 45 olive trees in the Palestinian village of Salem near the West Bank city of Nablus.
A farmer working in a field adjacent to the groves on Saturday discovered that many trees in the grove had been cut down. The grove owner filed a complaint with Ariel police.
In recent months Israeli volunteers have been assisting Salem farmers in tilling their fields while suffering from ongoing sabotage by settlers. Buma Inbar who visited the vandalized grove said “the site was horrifying – it’s hard to see dozens of old trees broken down so brutally, this is sheer vandalism.”