Jewish settlers shot dead a Palestinian girl while attacking homes in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday after the funeral of an Israeli soldier killed Friday in a roadside ambush, Palestinian witnesses said. Eight-year-old Neveen Jamjoum was shot inside the doorway of her house, her mother, Inam, told Reuters.
Palestinian sources said the girl died of her wounds because Israeli troops and settlers prevented ambulances from evacuating her. The sources said that Jamjoum's relatives managed to bring her to hospital only several hours after she was shot.
Palestinian medical sources said nine Palestinians were wounded by gunfire. The Palestinians said that among the injured were two of Jamjoum's brothers. They added that a settler had also stabbed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy. Witnesses said that the settlers had taken over a three storey building and had burned down the neighboring building.
"The (settlers) attacked the area and started shooting at the house and then we threw stones at them so they would leave. They shot the girl in the head and me in my leg," a Palestinian man said from his hospital bed.
Using metal bars, stones and guns, the settlers attacked shortly after the funeral in Hebron's Old City, Palestinians said. They smashed car windows, as well as the windows and doors of houses, witnesses said.
Israel Radio reported that 15 police officers and border policemen were wounded in clashes with settlers.
A curfew in Hebron was supposed to be lifted during the day Sunday, and stalls in the main market opened in the morning. However, the Israeli security forces, apparently fearing confrontations between Palestinians and the Jewish settlers, reimposed the curfew by throwing stun grenades and firing tear gas to disperse Palestinians in the market.
A Jewish settler couple and one of their 10 children were also killed in Friday's ambush.
The Israeli army was still conducting an expansive search in the Hebron area Sunday, in an effort to track down the Palestinians who killed the four. The village of Yata, from where the assailants were believed to have set out, remained under curfew. Preliminary investigations made by the Israeli army indicated that two assailants reached the site by car from the town of Yatta, then got out of their vehicle and waited by the side of the road to ambush Israeli cars.
In another development, Israeli forces captured a Palestinian woman Sunday afternoon near the West Bank town of Jenin. According to the army, the woman said that she was intending to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, Israel Radio reported. (Albawaba.com)
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