Minor Palestinian riots erupt in West Bank

Clashes between protestors, security forces continue; two soldiers, settler lightly injured by stone throwers.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN
Palestinian protester near Palestinian riot police 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Darren Whitesid)
Palestinian protester near Palestinian riot police 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Darren Whitesid)
Palestinians continued to clash with security forces in multiple low-level incidents across the West Bank on Tuesday, during which a soldier was lightly injured.
Separately, a settler was injured when a rock was thrown at him as he worked in a field outside the Kiryat Arba settlement.
An Israeli was also injured by a rock in the area of the Mevo Dotan settlement.
Security sources have continued to explain that the upsurge in violence cannot be characterized as a third intifada.
Shlomo Vaknin, in charge of security for the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, concurred with that assessment.
But, he said, there is no question that there has been an increase in the number of low-level incidents, which continue to spread beyond areas that have been the traditional flashpoints for violence in the last few years.
“The area of unrest in widening,” he said. “The amount of stones and Molotov cocktails are greater, and in the long term, this is a dangerous thing on its own,” Vaknin said.
On Tuesday, some 70 Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers at the village of Jalama, in the Binyamin region of the West Bank. Soldiers responded with riot dispersal means. In Beitunya, a group of 50 Palestinians threw rocks, as other Palestinians threw a Molotov cocktail near Abatot Junction, in the northern West Bank, damaging an Israeli vehicle. In Hebron, 100 Palestinians clashed with soldiers. Rocks were thrown at the IDF in the area of Machsom Hashoter, and the IDF used riot dispersal means to end the violent disturbance.
Rocks were also thrown at the IDF in the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The IDF registered a small disturbance at Beit Hagai, consisting of 15 rioters. In Kalkilya, 30 Palestinians threw stones.
Near the village of al-Fawar, in the Mount Hebron area, a soldier was lightly injured by a rock and hospitalized for treatment.
Palestinians and security forces also clashed across the West Bank on Monday, in the wake of the funeral for Arafat Jaradat, 30, who died in the Megiddo jail on Saturday. Israel has claimed he had a heart attack, while Palestinians charge he was tortured.
In Bethlehem on Monday, two Palestinian teens, 13 and 16, were injured by security forces in an incident in which Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at a guard tower by Rachel’s Tomb.
Mohammed El-Kord, 13, was shot in the stomach and leg by a .22-caliber bullet, and is serious condition at a hospital in Beit Jala. The 16-year- old teen was shot in the head by a rubber bullet, and is in serious condition at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem.