Israeli hurt in second West Bank road attack this week
Woman suffers burns after firebomb hits bus; IDF soldier hurt in clashes with Palestinians in Hebron.
By Chaim Levinson Tags: Hebron Israel newsA young Israeli woman was moderately wounded on Sunday when Palestinian militants hurled a firebomb at the bus in which she was riding south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
This was the second attack in less than a week against Israelis traveling on West Bank roads.
The 18-year-old woman suffered second degree burns after the flaming bottle made contact with her bus on the main road leading to the isolated settlement of Nagahot, near South Mount Hebron.
Meanwhile, some 20 Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israel Defense Forces soldiers stationed in Hebron on Sunday. One of the soldiers was lightly hurt after a Palestinian bit him.
The protesters had approached the IDF position and hurled rocks at them. Two of the Palestinians were detained during the clashes.
Settler leaders and politicians on the right were quick to blame the recurrence of attacks on Israel's recent lifting of West Bank roadblocks and its decision to freeze settlement construction.
"Since [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu decided to enforce the freeze, Arab terror against Jews has gotten worse," said the chairman of the Efrat Municipal Council, a settlement in the West Bank bloc of Gush Etzion.
MK Uri Ariel seconded this accusation, saying: "The rise in terror attempts is not coincidental. The weakness of the government is helping our enemies, and those living on the front lines are becoming the first casualties."
Until recently, Israel had restricted Palestinian movement on the road leading up to Nagahot due to security reasons. The High Court of Justice recently ruled that movement must be eased for Palestinians, despite the Israel Defense Forces' concerns.
That ruling has not yet gone into effect, however. Security forces are currently combing the area in search of the perpetrator.
Last Thursday, a resident of the West Bank settlement Shavei Shomron was killed in a shooting attack on a road near his home, in an area where Israel had also recently lifted a roadblock restricting Palestinian movement.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for that attack.
Meir Hai, a 40-year-old teacher and father of seven, was killed when militants opened fire at his car on the road between Shavei Shomron and the nearby settlement Einav in the West Bank. He was alone in his car.
An IDF officer said that in the past week a roadblock had been removed on the road Hai was driving on, about 150 meters from where he was shot.
The roadblock, known as the barrels roadblock, monitored traffic around Nablus in the direction of Tul Karm, the officer said. The perpetrators are believed to have fled through where the roadblock used to be, to the village of Asira al-Shamaliyah.
Over the past year, the number of terror attacks in the West Bank has dramatically decreased thanks mainly to the Shin Bet security service and IDF. However, IDF officials say attempts to carry out terror attacks continue, especially those perpetrated by local individuals working alone.
Last month, two people were stabbed at a Kiryat Arba gas station. The assailant was shot by a security guard and a soldier on leave.
|
Nahagot settlement, near Hebron. |
| Photo by: (Lior Mizrachi) |
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
There never was a country called Israel until 1948. For most of the history about which you seem to know little, the concept of country didn't exist. You should know something of the earliest inhabitants of the land on which the Palestinians now live. When Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, also known at that time as Palestine, the land was occupied by (among others) semite tribes, Hittites, Amorites and Jebusites. It's not a myth that the Jebusites had already built Jerusalem, and inhabited it for 100 years after the Israelites entered Canaan.They weren't called Arabs then, and the Israelites weren't called Jews. In the academic world there are many notable historians and scholars who recognize the Jebusites as the forebears of Palestinians. According to the New York University School of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences, Middle East Jewish men and Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian men have the same genetic signature, different from any other non-Jews in the world.
Pal:"There was and still is a Palestine that is recognized and most Israelis and Jews want to delete the existence" Mark: There NEVER was a country called Palestine, EVER in history. There never was a people called Palestinians(Arabs) in history and there are no historic references to Arab Palestine or Palestinians. Arabs who NOW refer to themselves as Palestinian have NO distinct culture, language, money that has ever exchanged at international money exchanges, no leader prior to Arafat. All Arab leaders living in Palestine were members of the Ottoman Empire Parliament prior to WW1 and to the Syrian Parliament after WW1. While the Jewish, Kurds, and Berbers all have a distinct language and culture the Arab Palestinian is a Myth. Created in the mid 1960's. That's why you should jump at the Israeli offer for country, it will be your FIRST one.
It never happened... And I personally swear that if it ever does for a long time, we'll give them their state right away. Also, understand that any sensed country would do so for anyone: if they kill us, we blame them, and if they don't, then we're okay! That's in the order of things...
"West Bank roads" should read "Israeli-only roads in the West Bank."
Abu Quisling Abbas is slowly but surely losing control of the people because he has come home with empty hands from his dealings with Israel. Likewise people are tired of his whining and threatening to leave office but never seeming to be able to step out the door. Soon he will only be able to rule through terrorism by his American-trained police force. How long before he is removed from office, one way or the other?
atleast be fair. you have to admit that Israel is not perfect and always blaiming the Palestinians for eveything is ignorant. There was and still is a Palestine that is recognized and most Israelis and Jews want to delete the existence and even the memory of it from everyones mind. Just give it up Israel, you might be winning the battle but you will lose the war.
You may not like the idea, but if one group oppresses another group long enough, they become hostile to the oppressing group. It may not be fair to the member of the oppressors who gets caught, but neither is the oppression of the other group.
ND:"If the Palestinians resist, then Israel kills them" Shooting a guy in his car or throwing a fire bomb at a bus of civilians is murder or terrorism not resistance. ND:"If the Palestinians do not resist," Since there has NEVER been a time without terrorism against Israel this point is moot. ND:"never stopping settlement expansion." There were NO settlement prior to 1967 and your resistance(terrorism) still was present. How do you explain the Jewish massacres in the 1920's and 1930's BEFORE Israel was reborn and again NO settlements. Stop the tirades based on false information, the settlements are just the latest excuse. ND:"Still, people wonder about the cause of Islamic extremism," No they don't, look around the world there have more 14500 terrorist attacks since 9/11 almost all them had nothing to do with Israel, and almost all were committed by Islamic terrorists the religion of peace. Only you wonder why, I don't!
The "confused" element of palestinians within the West Bank are going to "BLOW IT" now (finally) for any hope of a two state solution. This was going to happen: it was just a matter of time. Israel has gone above and beyond what ANY other country would have done or put up with and now: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Time to fight the last battle and annex BOTH Gaza and the West Bank. There is no solution: the palestinians DO NOT want peace, NEVER DID, and WILL NEVER STOP until they are expelled. The US would have annihilated these people: France, England...even Sweden would have launched MAJOR offensives against these people and expelled them (look at their histories). Israel has absorbed too much pain, suffering and SLANDER from "peace activists" and others PANDERING to an ignorant, lost cause..like a pack of puppets. GO ISRAEL, TAKE IT ALL BACK AND CALL IT A DAY.
... everything to do with the untrelenting occupation of neighbor's lands that do not belong to us...
There will never be peace in the Middle East. You can not steal someones land, beat and humiliate them today and ask them for concessions the next. Israel will evict or kill all the Palestinians in an effort to take all the land in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. And the UNited States will give them the money and bullets to do it.
"you don`t remember the British Empire which caused problems all over the world" Yeah? So what? Is this a British Empire website? No. Am I responsible for the British Emmpire? No. "Did the Royal Air Force drop leaflets before the city of Dresden was razed to the ground during the Second World War??" What's your point Marvyn? Do you think we were too hard on the Nazis? Do you think we should have delayed saving the Jews in the concentration camps even longer? No? Then shut up. "Also have respect for a democracy, the only one in the entire region of the Middle East" No thanks Marv. Israel is no more democratic than Lebanon, Turkey and maybe even Iran. OK, Israel doesn't have ayatollahs but it does have a racial bias and it has kept the Pals in captivity for 41 years.
Haven't you gotten the memo? Its "the terrorists" Israel and its American puppets are fighting, not Islam. If you're right, and Islam makes these people unalterably violent and immune to moral suasion, shoudn't they be exterminated?
Great....someone with a split personality is now preaching. Where did you get your history lesson from. Mohammad or Moishe ?
Nice of you to back Durson... the person that has no idea about anything. If only once she would take a neutral side or even find fault in anything Hamas or Fatah does...she would be more believable. As it is we all know exactly her stance on every story on Haaretz. It's fun to read her stuff and roll our eyes... as if to say ..."here we go again"- a new Dursonism
Israel and nearly every nation has signed the convention outlawing napalm, flamethrowers and other flaming gasoline bombs. Molotov throwers are war criminals. IDF should shoot them on sight, live ammo, even after they've already thrown their weapon. No western country is going to complain, and the fire bombs will stop as soon as throwing one becomes a form of suicide. Or...if the arabs prefer, Israel can withdraw from the anti-napalm convention, and IDF can start using napalm and flamethrowers again - BTW a perfect weapon to use against rocket launchers and tunnels.
Prior to 1967..which means prior to said "occupation"....Arab/Moslems were slaughtering Jews in Israel or Palestine....whatever name makes you happy. It has and never will be about occupation.
Why keep on building settlements, when this is illegal in the eyes of the world.? More revenge killings will not solve the problems, what we need is Negociating a just PEACE with our neighbors, and live HAPPY ever after. Happy New Year to All.Shalom.
If you value yout freedom and your sfatey , you must value the freedom and safety of others. Walls and the IDF cannot protect you forever....
Israel was COMPLETELY destroyed in 70ad. RIGHT? So Truman--and the new, wobly U.N. messed up royally. In 70ad or BCE, ROME DESTROYED ISRAEL! What is important is that the genealogical records were destroyed. Israel EXISTED through those records. The line of descent to Messiah was Israel's reason to exit. THAT IS WHAT ISRAEL WAS. That Israel is gone. The Israel of today (Judism) has no claim on Palestine. They were booted out. My family was BOOTED out. I recognize that. The persecution of the diaspora is a shameful thing. Home is to be a place of REST & PEACE, where one may hang his/her hat and rest. Those persons, bless them, looking for home need to except the laws of the land they gravitate to and let the Palestinians have peace. This world is full of angry people wanting what is not theirs. Land grabbers need to rethink and get real--WHEREVER A BORDER IS OPEN TO THEM.
hey Michael you don't remember the British Empire which caused problems all over the world how many people did the British military murder all over the world. look at the UK history before critisising other countries you also don't remember that the Israeli Air Force dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets warning residents of Gaza to go from that particular area. Did the Royal Air Force drop leaflets before the city of Dresden was razed to the ground during the Second World War?? And you can talk about collateral damage. Also have respect for a democracy, the only one in the entire region of the Middle East
I don't know what the israelis are complaining about, the palestinians are correct, and do it the texan way, if you step on my porch im free to deal with you as I please. The texans are stepping on the palestinians porch without invitation.
Believe me, if the violence ceases, Israel will have no choice but to pull out. Stop giving the rightists reason to stay.
Funny how it's OK for the IDF to inflict massive collateral damage on Gaza's civilians, but the moment a settler, breaking the Geneva convention by being in the WB at all, is hurt, suddenly there's huge wailing from Israel and you know more Palestinians are about to be killed in reprisals. Like the rest of the world I;m sick of Israel's hypocrisy and double standards.
Palestinians will go on lashing out at Jews because they don't want them around whether on the West Bank or Israel proper. When Israel retaliates the Palestinians will cry murder to the world. Palestinians are disappointed that they can't get rid of the Jews by terror or diplomacy but they feel no need to compromise because time and numbers in their estimation is on their side. The cycle of Palestinian aggression and Israeli retaliation is not about to end.Palestinians will seek out the international community to tie Israel's hands behind its back and they will be abetted by the Jewish goody goodies seeking to ingratiate themselves with the non-Jews.
I agree with Arnold. If the "Pals" gave up terrorism, they'd probably get what they want.
Well, Natallie, if all the land belongs to the pals, where the hell are the Isrealites supposed to be? Huh??
A narrative which leaves out Arab xenophobia and terror of course makes Israel seem like a homicidal maniac. The truth, however, is that Israel finds itself in the West Bank only because of Arab attempts to destroy PRE-67 Israel. And the land does not "belong" to the Pals as you claim. It was offered to them countless times and they have repeatedly rejected it, preferring terror and murder and poverty. They could have had their state a dozen times over. Stop blaming their dysfunction on Israel--time doesn't stand still until these people figure out how to act like human beings.
Ron, הסיבה היא כנראה התוקפנות הישראלית
That if you Israelis stayed on your side of the fence non of this would happen? And what about the arrest of the lovely settlers responsible for burning the mosque ??????
couldn't have said it better myself.
'Over the past year, the number of terror attacks in the West Bank has dramatically decreased thanks mainly to the Shin Bet security service and IDF. ' On the face of it, this seems unlikely: Shin Bet and the IDF are doing about what they have always done. What has been new is cooperation from the PA. It's interesting that this cannot be admitted to be a factor.
"all the land belongs to the palestinians". Not anymore it don't - never did and wishful thinking ain't gonna bring it back.
Why don't UN send troops to inforce evacuation from all settlements ? After all, Israel's policy is totally illegal if one refers to the basic articles of the UN chart... So is it "more illegal" to fight with one's own means if nothing is done to inforce the right ? In France, resistants weren't called terrorists, although they took violent action against the occupier... and nobody condemned the resistance afterwards..
If Israelis were not illegally occupying and colonizing the West Bank, then maybe it's indigenous people would refrain from such acts of violence - I think it's called resistance, not terrorism!
No peace with Islamists - ever.
Maybe you're really not welcome.
Israel plays the "heads I win, tails you lose" game with the Palestinians. If the Palestinians resist, then Israel kills them and still plays the victim, never stopping settlement expansion. If the Palestinians do not resist, then Israel is happy and plays the benevolent neighbor, never stopping settlement expansion. The important things to remember is that all the land belongs to the Palestinians. Israel herds them into overcrowded ghettos and restricts their growth as Israel takes more and more land outside of Israels borders. America, the EU and the world are complicit in this as long as they maintain peaceful ties with Israel. Still, people wonder about the cause of Islamic extremism, and wonder even more why America is hated almost as much as Israel. They are not paying attention.
Sorry people but as much as I want the Palestinians to be able to have a state of their own , they are going about it the wrong way. When Gaza was rid of the the Jewish "yoke" the Gazans just decided to continue their merry way with missiles closer. Then the IDF said enough and smacked Gaza badly. Recently there is a peaceful lull and only sporadic problems. Now in the West Bank where the IDF is grudgingly opening roadblocks the Pals are atacking. This is stupidity on their part. The Pals are victims of themselves.
A 40 year old guy killed and an 18 year old girl injured with a firebomb because Palastinains who did not know either of them turned them into symbiolic stick figures that they did not like. That is racism, and racism to support murder is pretty vile. It's incredible, but not surprising, that Israel bashers do not want to see this as it rains on their simple narrative of the Israeli "occupation". Or perhaps they share the racial assumptions of their Palastinain colleagues. Settlements are a bad idea, and settlers who fall for it are hardly praiseworthy, but nothing justifies murder, and those who condone or excuse murder are steadfast opponents of a two state solution that can only be based on mutual respect on both the indidual level and the peoples level.
The Supreme Court is well aware that people are dying as a result of its "politically correct" judgements and does not care. That is tantamount to premeditated murder.
Ahh, the 'religion of peace', the religion whose creed is "We love death more than you love life". Gotta love 'em, the little angels.
The right has what it wanted. Too bad some innocent girl was the victim. But victims justify what the monsters on both sides want. Hard to justify indulging the sadistic pleasures of murder and mayhem without having victims. The Israeli right and the Palestinan right have everything in common. A deep devotion to victimhood and a savage love of creating victims.
Do not remove security to appease Goldstone, the UN or the Arab League when the reasons are so obvious.