At least 13 Palestinians and one Israeli were wounded on Tuesday as ultra-nationalist Israelis went on the rampage in the Occupied West Bank city of Hebron, clashing with residents and Israeli security forces. The Israeli rioting broke out as rumors spread that security forces were set to evict 100 Jewish settlers from an occupied house the Israeli high court has ordered evacuated.
Young settlers, backed by right-wing supporters, hurled rocks for several hours at Palestinian homes and police vehicles. Police at one point fired teargas grenades at the protesters, but took no further measures - consistently used against Palestinian activists - to stop the rioting.
Human-rights groups have long denounced Israel's handling of settler violence with kid gloves in comparison to the brutal tactics employed while putting down even peaceful Palestinian protests.
At least 13 Palestinians were wounded and significant damage was caused to homes in Hebron, medics and witnesses said.
One Jewish activist was later seriously wounded after being hit in the head by a rock thrown at him by Palestinians as the clashes continued throughout the day, the army said.
On November 16, the Israeli High Court ordered the settlers to leave the Hebron house that they have occupied since March 2007, but security forces have not enforced the order to date.
The settlers insist they have bought the house, which the alleged Palestinian seller denies. The court ruling deemed that documents presented by the settlers to back up their ownership claims had been forged.
Since the order was issued, settlers have been involved in several clashes and desecrated a mosque and a cemetery.
However, scant action has been taken by the Israeli authorities to punish those responsible or to stop further attacks.
All Israeli presence on occupied land is illegal under international law and stands in violation of numerous UN resolutions.
The father of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, one of four Israelis killed in the attack on Mumbai's Chabad center, asked Premier Ehud Olmert not to order the evacuation of the occupied house during the mourning period "to maintain Israel's unity."
With more than 170,000 Palestinian residents, Hebron is the largest city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank apart from Occupied Jerusalem.
It has long been a flashpoint because of a militant settler enclave of around 600 hard-line Jews in the heart of the city, and a further 6,500 settlers living in Kiryat Arba on the outskirts.
Also Tuesday, Jewish settlers desecrated mosques in Occupied West Bank villages by spraying graffiti insulting the Prophet Mohammad, Palestinian officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
"Mohammad is a pig" and "Death to Arabs," written in Hebrew were spray-painted on the walls of a mosque in Al-Sawyeh village in the northern Occupied West Bank, local councillor Mohammad Abdel-Rahim said.
Pigs are deemed unclean by Islam, making the comparison sprayed on the mosque highly insulting to Muslims.
The perpetrators also sprayed stars of David on the doors of several stores and slashed the tires of eight cars in a pre-dawn attack, Abdel-Rahim said.
Colonists also painted stars of David and the word "Hebron" on two mosques in the villages of Sinjel at-Turmusayya, witnesses said.
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