Dozens are hurt as West Bank settlers and Palestinians clash

Dispute over ownership of settler building

HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli settlers and Palestinians hurled stones at each other yesterday near a disputed home in this West Bank city, injuring two dozen people, including a serious head wound to a Jewish teenager, medics and Israeli officials said.

Seventeen Israelis and Palestinians were arrested, police said.

The clash was the worst outbreak of violence in the dispute over ownership of a four-story building, where settlers have defied an Israeli Supreme Court order to vacate. On Monday, hundreds of right-wing Israelis rushed to the house following rumors that eviction was imminent.

Hebron, holy to Jews and Muslims, is one of the most volatile flashpoints in the West Bank. About 500 hard-line Jewish settlers live in guarded enclaves amid some 170,000 Palestinians in the city, and the sides frequently clash.

Israeli security forces did not intervene Monday as hundreds of settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars and houses, defaced a Muslim cemetery, and damaged Palestinian property in several other areas of the West Bank.

Fighting started again yesterday, with settlers, some of them masked, throwing rocks at Palestinian houses.

In one incident, young settlers battered the door of a Palestinian house with a wooden pole, and residents rushed to the roof to throw rocks at the group below. A 16-year-old Israeli was hit in the head in this confrontation, witnesses said. Hospital officials described his injuries as serious.

Eighteen Israelis were injured, medics said. Their Palestinian counterparts reported seven Palestinians hurt by stones.

Late yesterday, the military declared the Palestinian section of Hebron off limits to Israelis.

An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinians in southern Gaza yesterday, dealing a new blow to efforts to restore a cease-fire. The army said it attacked militants who fired mortar shells at Israeli troops. Palestinian medical officials said the dead were civilians, boys ages 16 and 17.

Also yesterday, an Israeli military court convicted the Palestinian Parliament speaker, Abdel Aziz Duaik, of membership in Hamas. Sentencing is Dec. 18.