Jewish settler terrorists rampage at Arab village, casualties reported
 
From Khalid Amayreh in al-Khalil
8 April, 2009
 

	The illegal Israeli Beit Ayn settlement outpost near Hebron

Illegal Israeli terrorist settlers on Thursday attacked a small Arab village north of Al-Khalil (Hebron), shooting randomly on civilians and vandalizing homes and businesses.
 
Eyewitnesses said as many as a hundred settler terrorists descended on the small village of Safa, 10 kilometers north west of al-Khalil, with the purpose of carrying out a pogrom against local inhabitants.
 
The terrorists were escorted by several Israeli army soldiers who reportedly made no effort to stop the terrorists who were shouting “death to the Arabs.”
 
The Palestinians, fearing for their lives, hurled stones at the rampaging  settlers to prevent them from setting fire to Palestinian property, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire at the Palestinians.
 
At least 28 people were reportedly wounded with live ammunition, including a boy who was shot in the chest.
 
Medical sources said Tha-er Nasser Adi, 17, was in serious but stable condition at the Ahli hospital in al –Khalil.
 
The mayor of the nearby town of Beit Ummar, Nasri Sabarna, described the settler rampage as “an unprovoked criminal act against innocent and peaceable people.”
 
Sabarna said the settlers wanted to terrorize the Palestinian villagers in order to take over their land and property.
 
He accused the right-wing Israeli government of giving Jewish terrorists a green light to attack Palestinians and vandalize their property.
 
“The present government is a government of settlers, by the settlers, for the settlers. I believe there is a full coordination between the settlers and the army.”
 
Muhammed, a local villager, called the settlers “savages and Nazis.”
 
“These people go to their religious Talmudic schools in the morning, and in the afternoon they come here to attack us, terrorize our women and children  and sabotage our property. What kind of religion are they following?”
 
Muhammed called on the international community to provide protection against “these barbarians who want to kill us and expel us from our land.”
 
He lashed out at the Israeli army for its “connivance and collusion” with the settlers, saying that the army and the settlers were “two sides of the same coin.”
 
Al-Khalil Governor Hussein al Araj, who arrived at the village soon after the disturbances, accused the Israeli army of failing to protect Palestinians from the settlers.
 
“I believe the settlers wouldn’t dare attack the village without at least a tacit approval from the Israeli army.”
 
Al-Araj held the Israeli army fully responsible for this “pogrom,” saying that Palestinians in the occupied territories needed international protection.
 
He added that settler attacks and terror would continue as long as “these criminal squatters remain here.”
 
The small illegal Israeli settlement outpost, known as Beit Ayn, is home to extremist settlers who are indoctrinated in Jewish supremacy.
 
A few years ago, some of the settlers from Beit Ayn were caught implanting a large explosive charge at a Palestinian school near Jerusalem.
 
The explosion would have killed and injured dozens of Palestinian children.
 
Last week, a settler was killed, ostensibly in retaliation for the murder  of Palestinians by settler terrorists.
 
Normally, the Israeli justice system deals extremely lightly with settlers who murder Palestinians.
 
During the al-Qsa intifada,  the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists killed thousands of Palestinians, the vast majority of whom innocent civilians, to suppress Palestinian aspirations for freedom from decades of the Nazi-like Israeli military occupation.
 
According to an Israeli human rights organization, only a handful of cases of murder were investigated.

Armed illegal Israeli settlers attack, injure 38 Palestinians, Teenager in critical condition

Date: 08 / 04 / 2009  Time:  10:03
Hebron – Ma’an –

Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed illegal Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli occupation terrorist soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning.

According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.

One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha-er Adi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah.

One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.

The Israeli terrorist soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said.

Neighboring villages called on for help

Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call.

When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa.

Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured:
31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh,
26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot,
26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh,
35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and
24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil

The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day’s events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves.

Revenge

On Thursday, in the illegal Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin which has been built on usurped Palestinian lands, a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe.

The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week’s attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son.

The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident.


***Updated at 15:04 Bethlehem time