Settlers break into IDF base in 'price tag' attack
LAST UPDATED: 12/13/2011 07:53
Security forces chase 50 right-wing activists out of base; IDF: "This crosses a red line"; one arrested.
![IDF clashes with protesters [illustrative]](../HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=165751 "IDF clashes with protesters [illustrative]")
IDF clashes with protesters [illustrative] Photo: Reuters
Fifty settlers and right-wing Jewish activists broke into an IDF base in
the West Bank early Tuesday morning. The activists burned tires, spread
nails on the roads, vandalized cars and threw rocks at the jeep of a
senior officer.
The incident, the latest in a series of so-called
"price tag" attacks by settlers and right-wing activists against
Palestinians and the IDF, came just hours after security forces evacuated about 20 activists from an abandoned building they had raided along Israel's border with Jordan.
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The
settlers and right-wing activists broke into the Efraim Regional
Brigade Headquarters located near the settlement of Kedumim early
Tuesday morning.
They punctured the tires of nearby military
vehicles and hurled rocks at brigade commander Col. Ran Kahane as he
drove nearby in his military jeep. He was not injured.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the IDF to use all of the
resources at its disposal to prevent further “price tag” attacks and to
capture the perpetrators of Tuesday’s morning’s attack.
One
individual was arrested Tuesday morning for obstructing the entrance to
the base with stones, according to police. The suspect, a Beit El
resident born in 1991, resisted arrest.
The IDF said that it
would not stop carrying out its operations in the West Bank and that
"violence against soldiers would not deter it." The IDF said that it
expected rabbinic and settler leaders to condemn the incident.
IDF
Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said a red line was crossed in the
attack on an IDF base in the West Bank early Tuesday morning by Jewish
settlers who he said were trying to drag the army into political
affairs, speaking with Army Radio.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mordechai said, has cleared
his schedule "and I expect (the West Bank settler leadership) will hear
from him."
"There is no doubt that we are seeing radical actors,
who have a leadership behind them - certain rabbis, who want to drag
the army into political matters," the IDF spokesman said.
But
Mordechai declined to refer to the attack in the terms of the attackers:
"Price tag." IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz "for a
while now hasn't called this 'price tag.' We need to define this
correctly."
The IDF Spokesman also insisted that it is the
responsibility of the Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to
stop attacks on IDF soldiers, saying those two agencies "need to be
making every effort to deal with this." The army's job, he said, "is to
fight those threatening Israel."
Barak said of the earlier border fence attack: “These actions are dangerous and also threaten the delicate ties between
Israel and its neighbors."