Israeli occupation troops wound 24 Arabs in Hebron

Israeli occupation soldiers shot and wounded at least 24 Palestinians on July 2 in an another flare-up of violence over anti-Islamic posters, witnesses said.

Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in an explosion outside a Jewish settler compound in the divided West Bank city. Dozens of Arab youths broke away from a peaceful protest, which Palestinian dignitaries called in response to the discovery of the crudely drawn posters, and threw rocks and gasoline bombs at soldiers and settlers.

Soldiers, holed up behind street corners and on rooftops, responded by firing and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Medics at a makeshift field hospital set up in a gas station courtyard said they treated 24 people for injuries. Israeli police on June 30 arrested a 25 year old Jewish woman from Jerusalem on suspicion of pasting the posters on about 20 storefronts in Hebron. She also had thrown a rock through the windshield of an Arab car, police said.

Tensions have been fueled by a freeze in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over Israel's ground breaking for a new Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem. Palestinians in Hebron were enraged when they discovered the posters of "a pig donning an Arab headdress."

"The only apology that we would accept is to withdraw the settlers from the heart of Hebron,” said Rfiq al-Natsheh, a member of the Palestinian legislative council, during the demonstration.

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