Dozens of Jewish settlers who seized a Palestinian house in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday have reportedly left of their own accord, said the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Spokesmen for the group said they agreed to evacuate the structure as a “sign of good will.”
They had said that the takeover was an attempt to increase the Jewish presence in the city.
The settlers claimed the house was Jewish property and planned to extend the limits of Hebron's Jewish sector, Israel Radio had said.
A Palestinian official accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of having given the go-ahead for the operation, further heightening the tension in the town, where some 400 Jewish extremists live under heavy Israeli protection surrounded by a Palestinian population of some 120,000.
"Ariel Sharon allowed the settlers to carry out their attack in order to extend their sector and terrorize their Palestinian neighbors," Palestinian intelligence chief Amin Al Hindi told the official Voice of Palestine radio, cited by AFP.
The pacifist Israeli movement Peace Now condemned in a statement what it described as "provocation" by the settlers and called for their "immediate evacuation," adding that they were "an obstacle to any possible agreement with the Palestinians."
The Israeli-controlled section of Hebron was declared a military zone on Sunday.
A curfew was imposed on the area, military sources told Haaretz newspaper Sunday.
On Saturday, settlers opened fire on Palestinians, seriously injuring an eight-year-old girl, according to Palestinian sources.
Afnan Al Jibrini was hit in the chest and rushed to a nearby hospital, the source told AFP.
The same source said that the settlers had also hurled stones in the Abu Sneinah quarter.
Two settlers from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, who had been injured by Palestinian gunmen, died of their injuries on Friday.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, the international media has reported that Palestinians have killed over 125 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
Meanwhile, press reports say Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and over 500 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
