Security incidents strike West Bank

IDF stops a Palestinian man with a 12-centimeter knife in Gush Etzion; stones thrown at Israeli car near Bethlehem.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Esh Kodesh clashes 370 (photo credit: Tazpit News Agency)
Esh Kodesh clashes 370
(photo credit: Tazpit News Agency)
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.