Palestinians threw stones at IDF soldiers and Israeli vehicles in at least 14
separate incidents throughout the West Bank on Thursday.
There were no
injuries, although some vehicles suffered damage, the IDF said.
Since
Operation Pillar of Defense, there has been a marked increase in the number of
Molotov cocktail and stone-throwing incidents, said Shlomo Vaknin, who heads
security for the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza
Strip.
Although the Gaza operation is over, the West Bank has not calmed
down, he said, adding that many of the incidents involved groups of Palestinians
who seemed emboldened to attack soldiers.
He said he had brought the
matter up on Thursday with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, during
a meeting about car accident-related problems with West Bank road
safety.
According to the IDF, there were eight incidents on West Bank
roads in which Palestinians threw stones at Israeli vehicles, damaging some of
them, including two buses.
Separately there were six incidents in which
groups of Palestinians attacked IDF soldiers.
Near Nablus and the Yitzhar
settlement, five Palestinians threw stones at soldiers, who responded with riot
dispersal methods, according to the army.
By the Ofra settlement, 100
Palestinians flung stones at the IDF, and were similarly dispersed. Near
Ramallah, 30 Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers, as did a group of 50 in the
Gush Talmonim area and 60 near the Shiloh settlement. Palestinians also threw
stones at soldiers in the Bethlehem area.
In a separate incident,
Palestinians hurled stones, Molotov cocktails and two pipe bombs at Rachel’s
Tomb, according to the IDF. One woman was treated for shock.
The
violent outbreaks came just one day after Channel 10 aired an interview with
jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, whom Israel sentenced to life in prison
for his role in past suicide bombings.
In that interview, jointly
conducted with Haaretz during Operation Pillar of Defense, Barghouti warned that
if the occupation continued, there would be a third intifada.