Palestinians accuse Israelis of carrying out mass killing
Palestinian officials in the southern West Bank town of Hebron have accused Jewish settlers of carrying out a systematic mass killing against "helpless Palestinian citizens" for the purpose of driving them away from the city's ancient quarter, IRNA reported.
The report said: The charges came in the aftermath of several days of riots by settlers protesting an Israeli court order to evacuate them from an erstwhile wholesale vegetable market leased by Palestinians since the Jordanian era.
During the riots several Arab shops and property were set on fire.
According to Israeli army sources, the settlers also attacked Palestinian homes with stones and sharp objects. "The declared goal of these thugs is to ethnically cleanse Hebron of non-Jews. Unfortunately, the Israeli army does nothing to stop them, on the contrary, Israeli soldiers watch passively as helpless Palestinians are attacked and harassed and Palestinian property is vandalized by the settlers," said Arif Jaabari, the governor of Hebron.
Jaabari told IRNA that Jewish terror in Hebron has already caused more than 50% of the Palestinian inhabitants of Hebron's old town to flee for their lives.
"There is a constant reign of terror, the settlers and their children attack Palestinian children on their way to school and their way home from school, and when the Palestinians complain to the Israeli police, the police tell them to submit a complaint. But nothing happens beyond that."
He added that half a million Palestinians, the population of the Hebron district, were hostage to the whims of some 300 messianic settlers who believe that non-Jews living in a Jewish state must be expelled, enslaved or exterminated.
In 1994, a Jewish settler from the US murdered 29 Arab worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque, triggering a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings against Israeli military and civilian targets. Since then, the Israeli army has imposed draconian restrictions on Palestinians in the old town, including prolonged closures and curfews, causing many to flee.