The Israeli army damaged a temple belonging to the Samaritans, a Jewish offshoot, in the northern West Bank during an overnight on Palestinian targets there, a community leader said Tuesday.
Bullet holes riddled the walls of the temple located next to the office of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's political faction Fateh, which was rocketed by Israeli helicopter gunships late Monday.
"We reject this aggression and it means they (the Israeli army) do not respect holy places and to not distinguish between synagogue, church or mosque," Amir Yusif Farawi, head of the Samaritan studies center attached to the temple, told AFP.
Palestinians called for international protection after Israeli choppers fired on the offices of Fateh in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in retaliation for two Israelis who were killed in attacks in and around Jerusalem on Monday.
The Samaritan community, which Farawi said numbers 350 in the Nablus area, has good relations with the Palestinians, with some Samaritans carrying Palestinian identity cards.
The Samaritans broke with the Jewish majority in sixth century BC and constructed a temple on the mountain Jerizim above Nablus, where they live.
Another some 300 Samaritans live in the Israeli town of Holon, south of Tel Aviv -- NABLUS, West Bank (AFP)
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