Exactly one week after a terror attack in Yitzhar sparked a settler rampage through a nearby Palestinian village, border policemen thwarted an infiltration into the settlement Saturday when they shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian carrying a firebomb. Policemen manning an IDF observation post spotted the youth approaching the settlement armed with a Molotov cocktail at around 6 a.m. Troops opened fire after the Palestinian youth lit the device, the IDF said. A knife was discovered on his body. Security officials said it appeared that he planned to enter Yitzhar - which is not surrounded by a fence - to perpetrate an attack. The youth was identified as Suhayeb Saleh, from the village of Assira al-Kubliyeh near Yitzhar. His parents said that Saleh's older brother was killed by IDF troops in 2002, after he opened fire on an army patrol near Yitzhar and wounded four soldiers. Last weekend, Yitzhar settlers went on a rampage in Assira al-Kubliyeh after a Palestinian infiltrated the settlement and stabbed a nine-year-old boy. Earlier this week, settlers set fire to about 200 olive trees belonging to the village of Madameh near Yitzhar and police arrested two Yitzhar residents. On Saturday night, Yitzhar spokesman Yigal Amitai said that the thwarted infiltration by the Palestinian teen justified the retaliatory actions settlers had taken following last Saturday's stabbing; the reprisal actions should have been harsher, he said, as the settlers had not done enough to prevent Palestinians from launching further attacks. He also criticized the IDF for not taking stiffer measures to stop Palestinians from attempting to infiltrate Yitzhar. AP contributed to this report.
