Palestinians: Settlers throw stones in W. Bank village

Sources say that dozens of Itamar residents march towards Awarta, damage houses in apparent revenge for Fogel family killings.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, BEN HARTMAN
Settlers protesting in Jerusalem 311 Reu (photo credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
Settlers protesting in Jerusalem 311 Reu
(photo credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
Over 100 hundred settlers from the West Bank community of Itamar made their way to the Palestinian village of Awarta on Monday and threw stones at homes, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
In an apparent revenge attack for the brutal murder of five members of the Fogel family on Friday night, more than a dozen masked settlers approached the village in what appeared to be a demonstration, Ma'an reported.
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According to the report, two Awarta residents were injured as they attempted to drive away the settlers.
Avishay Bloch, a 24-year-old resident of Samaria said that he and a few hundred other marchers, walked from the Itamar synagogue to the outskirts of Awarta, where they held signs, including a few in Arabic and one reading "Awarta – we will pursue you for eternity".
"We marched to Awarta and when we got outside the village we held a rally and people from the Samaria local authority and Itamar gave speeches talking about how we're there to say and will build in response to the attack."
"After that we walked to the new neighborhood of Itamar [where the murders took place] and we started putting up tents and working on the new neighborhood to show that in the face of murder and our weak government we are becoming stronger."
Bloch was dismissive of media reports that settlers threw rocks saying "I didn't see anybody throwing rocks. I was there for the entire march and didn't see even a single person throw rocks or even a single Arab. We didn't come to fight, we came to show our support for our struggle. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, that nobody threw rocks, but I didn't see it at all."