Last update - 00:00 13/03/2007
IDF officer suspended after complaint of damaging West Bank mosque
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Residents of a southern West Bank village have complained that Israel Defense Forces troops entered the village last week, broke windows of its mosque, and threatened to destroy it unless residents stopped throwing stones at the cars of Israeli settlers.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said an investigation has been launched into the matter, and that the company commander involved in the incident has been suspended until completion of the probe.
The complaint was received by the organization Rabbis for Human Rights.
Lawyer Kamer Misharki Efad said Monday that according to testimony delivered by village residents, on the day of the incident three IDF Jeeps entered the village of Zif - located on the southern slope of Mount Hebron - and parked next to the mosque.
The soldiers broke windows with their rifle butts, they said, and then broke windows of residents' cars.
According to the complaint, the soldiers assembled residents at the mosque and told them they had acted in response to incidents of stone-throwing at the cars of settlers living nearby.
"If more stones are thrown," the residents said they were told, "we will destroy the mosque."