Palestinian rock-throwers lightly wounded two border policemen during clashes
that broke out while security forces protected an IDF team that demolished
illegal construction in the area of Kusra in Samaria on Wednesday.
Around
200 villagers came to the scene and many of them began throwing rocks. The
border policeman were treated at the scene.
Border police arrested one
man for throwing rocks.
Rabbi Yehiel Greniman of Rabbis for Human Rights
happened to be in Kusra, which is 28 km. southeast of Nablus, and was talking
with the head of the village when he got a call that soldiers were in the
village to carry out demolitions.
He told The Jerusalem Post that they
went to the scene, where they saw security forces in riot gear, and a bulldozer
that had begun to knock down electric posts on the outskirts of the
village.
“Pretty soon after they knocked down the first post, some kids
threw rocks and the border police opened fired with tear gas,” he
said.
“One young person collapsed and was lying there. I remember he was
wearing a red shirt. I was told by someone that he had asthma and diabetes. We
called the army to say, let the ambulance through,” Greniman said.
He
added that it seemed to take the ambulance a long time to arrive.
More
kids threw rocks and the security forces fired more tear gas, he said. At that
point, he retreated.
According to Rabbis for Human Rights field worker
Zacharia Sada, the army knocked down between 10 and 12 poles. But, he said, they
were in an unpopulated area of the village and the impact on the community’s
electricity supply was minimal.
The incident in Kusra was one of at least
five clashes between Palestinians and the IDF in the West Bank on
Wednesday.
Near Beit Umar, 11 km. northwest of Hebron,
Palestinians threw stones at military vehicles, the IDF said. Security forces
used riot dispersal means to clear the area.
In the Huwara area, south of
Nablus, 70 Palestinians threw stones at soldiers, an IDF spokesman said.
Security forces arrested three of the Palestinians, one of whom had a
knife.
Some 50 Palestinians threw stones at Rachel’s Tomb on the northern
edge of Bethlehem, the army said.