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Israeli soldier stabbed near Hebron
March 11, 1997
Web posted at: 12:20 p.m. ESTIn this story:
DAHARIYAH, West Bank (CNN) -- An Israeli soldier guarding a Jewish settlement near the West Bank town of Hebron was stabbed 20 times and wounded seriously Tuesday.
Military sources said it was an apparent Palestinian guerrilla attack, and the Israeli army said later it had arrested four Palestinian suspects at Dahariyah village, south of Hebron.
The pre-dawn attack occurred at the Tene Omarim settlement south of Hebron, home to about 120 Jewish families. The soldier fired at his attackers and wounded one.
Rescue workers rushed the soldier to a hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel.
'Very serious' condition
"We found him stabbed all over his body, about 20 stabs mainly in the head, chest and stomach -- penetrating stabs," said paramedic Gadi Abuhatzeira. He described the soldier's condition as "very serious."
Army investigators found two knives, a hole in the settlement's fence, and bloody footprints leading to Dahariyah.
A Jewish settler leader accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of inciting the attack and demanded a halt to peace moves.
"What's clear is this incident didn't just happen. Arafat made a threat and also carried it out," Jewish settler leader Ron Schechner told army radio.
"There's no doubt that this is the result of threats, and I believe it must be clear on this matter that the government of Israel must not operate under threats," Schechner said.
Anger over Israeli decisions
Palestinians are angry at recent Israeli government decisions to build a new Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem and to withdraw from only a third of the West Bank land Palestinians had expected to receive in the latest Israeli troop redeployment.
Near Hebron on Monday, at least 10 Palestinians were injured by Israeli soldiers who used clubs and guns to beat back about 100 Arabs as they tried to stop workers from opening a road for Jewish settlers, witnesses said.
The clash was the first serious outbreak of Israeli-Arab violence since Arafat spurned an Israeli decision on Friday to hand over another 9 percent of the West Bank to Palestinian rule.
Palestinians wanted 30 percent and a say in determining the scope of this and two other pullbacks from mainly rural areas of the West Bank which Israel-PLO interim peace deals mandate must be completed by mid-1998.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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