RAMALLAH: Israeli police yesterday detained several left-wing activists and Palestinians who clashed with Jewish occupiers near the West Bank village of Safa.
Palestinian sources said that a group of 20 activists from the Jewish-Arab rights group Ta’ayush were trying to help Palestinians with agricultural work near Safa, to the north of Hebron. The sources added that 40 masked Jewish occupiers from nearby settlement Bat Ayin attacked them.
Activist Mairav Zonszein said occupiers assaulted the activists and pelted them with stones, breaking one of their cameras, and flipping over one of their cars, breaking the windshield.
Israeli soldiers and border police armed with batons arrived and forcefully removed the demonstrators from the scene, according to Zonszein.
Border Police then declared the area a closed military zone. Zonszein added that five activists were arrested under the closed military zone order, which she stressed had been enforced only on Israeli and Palestinian activists and not on the Jewish occupiers. Two Palestinians suspected of throwing stones were also arrested, according to Army Radio.
Following the killing of Bat Ayin settler Shlomo Nativ at the hands of an ax-wielding Palestinian in April, a number of clashes have broken out between occupiers and Palestinians living in nearby villages. At the start of May two Palestinians were injured from gunshots fired by settlers at their village of Khirbet Safa.
A few days after the murder, violent clashes broke out between residents of Bat Ayin and Palestinian residents of the village of Safa.
Sixteen Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli forces, after settlers prayed near the village. One Israeli was lightly injured.
