Violence continued in the West Bank on Sunday, as the IDF stopped a Palestinian
man with a 12-centimeter knife on Sunday afternoon at the major intersection in
the Gush Etzion region.
Soldiers found the knife during a routine
inspection.
Separately on Sunday, stones were thrown at an IDF vehicle
near Ramallah and an Israeli car near Bethlehem. Both vehicles were
damaged.
On Saturday evening the IDF found a fake bomb near the Migdal Oz
settlement in the Gush Etzion region.
In the area of Hebron on Saturday
night the IDF arrested three wanted Palestinians.
But the largest
incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, when according to the IDF, some 200
Palestinians attacked the vineyards of the Esh Kodesh outpost near
Shiloh.
Esh Kodesh spokesman Aron Katsof said 12 outpost residents were
wounded as a result, including one who was treated in the hospital and then
released.
The Palestinians came very close to the homes and destroyed
vineyards, Katsof said.
The IDF added that Palestinians were able to cut
through one of the fences protecting the vineyards. He added that the window of
a security vehicle was also broken by the stones.
Hella Mann of Esh
Kodesh said that the three-hour event began when a number of people from the
outpost went for a walk.
Palestinians observed them and, within minutes,
it seemed as if hundreds had arrived and began to throw stones.
“It was
as if they were organized and waiting,” Mann said.
She added that her
brotherin- law was wounded in the head by one of the stones.
It took the
army over half an hour to arrive, said Mann, who watched the events unfold from
the window of her home where she lives with her two daughters, ages three and
one.
She blamed the attack on a military order to allow Palestinians to
work a field near the outpost.
“It was not like this before,” Mann said,
explaining that she felt that military order compromised the security of outpost
residents.
“I am worried for my girls,” she said.
The incident is
the latest in a series of violent and non-violent exchanges between Palestinians
and settlers in that area in the last week and is part of extended battle for
ownership of farmlands around the outpost.