HEBRON,
July 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian girl was
shot dead and 23 other Palestinians were injured Sunday, July 28, by
Jewish settlers who went on the rampage through the West Bank city of
Al-khalil, causing widespread fear and panic among the Palestinian
civilians.
As
she stood on her balcony near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Nivin Musa
Jamjoum, 14, was shot in the head, by a mob of Jewish settlers. The
place, also known as the Machpelah Cave, is a contested religious site
in Hebron where a Jewish fanatic shot dead 29 Palestinians in 1994,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Jamjoum‘s
brother was also wounded, but only slightly.
Twelve
people were injured by the fanatic settlers, including a family of six
riding a horse-drawn cart, which was rammed by settlers in a car on a
by-pass road, eyewitnesses said.
The
family members were said to be moderately-to-seriously injured.
Two
others, one of them a man in his 20s, were suffering from gunshot
wounds, while a nine-year-old was beaten up and stabbed, they said.
Another
Palestinian youth was reportedly stabbed and later evacuated for
medical treatment.
Eleven
other people, including an Israeli policeman, were injured in the
rioting.
Israel
army radio said the policeman was injured in the face by settlers.
Witnesses
said the settlers had also taken over a three-story Palestinian house,
confining the Abu Nagiba al-Sharbati family to a single room, while a
second Palestinian house was torched and badly damaged.
The
burned house, a three-storey building belonging to the Abu Samir
al-Sharbati family, contained a large collection of antiquities. The
family was evicted before the house was torched.
Settlers
were also shooting and throwing stones at Palestinian houses near the
Jewish enclave of Avraham Avinu after the funeral of an Israeli
soldier and resident of the area who was killed Friday, July 26, in a
Palestinian ambush.
Elazar
Leibovitz, 21, was buried in the old Jewish graveyard in Hebron at
noon, and the funerals of the other three killed in Friday's attack
started shortly afterwards.
An
Israeli army spokesman said only he was aware of "some sort of
rioting going on in Hebron", a divided city where heavily guarded
Jewish settlers live among 120,000 Palestinians.
For
their part, Palestinians in Hebron condemned “the crimes committed
by the terrorist settlers”, urging the international community to
provide protection for the Palestinians.
“The
Americans repeat what the Israeli propaganda say about the so-called
Palestinian terror, what about these insane practices committed by the
Jewish settlers? It is not the first time such crimes are committed,
under the eyes and noses of the occupation army,” a Palestinian
resident of Hebron told IslamOnline.
“They
are only 400 settlers living among more than 120,000 Palestinians.
However, they move around heavily-guarded, spreading terror wherever
they go. Even foreign reporters fear them. All what we want from the
international community is to protect us from those inhuman
terrorists,” he added.
The
rioting came as politicians moved to restore contacts between Israeli
and Palestinian officials, after an Israeli air raid on Gaza City on
July 22 killed 18 people, including a Hamas leader and 17 civilians,
eleven of whom are children, and threatened to derail fragile talks
that had resumed last weekend.
 |
|
Jewish settlers throw stones at Palestinian homes, Israeli soldiers
watching |
A
senior Palestinian official said Israeli Finance Minister Silvan
Shalom was to meet Monday with his Palestinian counterpart Salam
Fayad, although the latter said he was still awaiting Israeli
confirmation of the session, AFP said.
The
meeting was expected to focus on Israel's agreement to unblock part of
the 430 million dollars of Palestinian customs duties and taxes it has
frozen since the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against the
Israeli occupation, broke out 22 months ago.
Israel
had refused to unblock any of the funds until a U.S.-supervised
monitoring body was set up to ensure none of it made its way to
militant groups, but the Jewish state dropped the condition in a
conciliatory gesture after it internationally condemned attack on a
densely populated area in Gaza that earned it worldwide rebukes.
U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said in New Delhi that he would meet a
Palestinian delegation in Washington next weekend to discuss security
reforms.
"I
will be discussing with them security transformation, the work of the
task force we announced in New York," said Powell.
He
was referring to a security-oversight group set up earlier this month
consisting of senior officials from the Middle East
"quartet", the United States, United Nations, European Union
and Russia.
In
Ramallah, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said he would be in
the team for Washington, together with newly appointed interior
minister General Abdel Razaq al-Yahiya and economy minister Maher
al-Masri
.
