Date: 03 / 04 / 2009  Time:  10:22
Bethlehem - Ma’an/Agencies -

 In Safa village Israeli occupation soldiers occupied three homes and declared them military posts. Several bulldozers blocked off entrances to the village, cutting it off totally from its lands and neighboring villages as the Israeli manhunt for the “axe attacker” continues.

Safa residents have lived under curfew for 24 hours as troops patrol the streets and raid homes. The residences of Ahmed Ismail Kokas, Ghazi Ahmed Ady, and Isam Ibrahim Ady have been taken over and at least six others suffered damage as troops burst through doors or smashed windows. Villagers say at least 28 have been detained and are being held in an unknown location.

Worries over a retaliatory attack from right-wing Israeli settlers in the illegal Bat Ayin settlement were stayed slightly after Israeli news media published reports of the local Rabbi urging calm.

Several media outlets in Israel reported a settlement-wide meeting Thursday night in an effort for the Bat Ayin settlers to form their collective reactions to the Thursday afternoon “axe attack” that saw the death of a local teenager.

What settlers described as an axe-wielding Palestinian youth entered the illegal settlement around noon and attacked 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ and another seven-year-old boy. Nativ was killed and the younger boy moderately injured.

Reports on the meeting in the 140-family settlement south of Bethlehem in the West Bank said issues of security and mourning were discussed. The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a settlement rabbi as saying the community focused on grief, not revenge. The newspaper Ma’ariv noted discussion focused on how to increase security around the settlement.

In a 13 September riot, Israeli settlers from the unsanctioned illegal outpost of Shalhevet near the larger settlement of Yitzhar south of Nablus, rampaged through the Palestinian village of Asira Al-Qibliya where a Palestinian youth seen infiltrating the settlement fled. The settlers slashed car tires, broke windows and graffiti-ed homes as soldiers locked down the area giving the mob free-reign.

Reactions to the attacks were grim and increased fears over the lack of state control over unruly settler groups in the West Bank. It is unclear whether the new Israeli government shares the same fears over what many saw as a rise in settler violence, particularly in light of the appointment of ultra-nationalist Yisrael Betinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, who lives in a settlement deep in the West Bank.

Official Israeli reaction to the matter has focused on the military response to the attack, with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying he viewed the situation with the “utmost gravity” and instructed security officials to make every effort to apprehend the attacker.


***Updated 12:28 Bethlehem time