BICOM

A violent confrontation erupted yesterday in the northern West Bank village of Tamoum between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

An undercover Israeli Border Police unit entered the village in disguise, in order to arrest Murad Bani Odah, who was identified by both Israeli and Palestinian reports as a member of Islamic Jihad. However, as the arrest was taking place, local youths began to hurl rocks at the Israeli forces and a riot ensued. Regular IDF troops entered the village and dispersed the crowd with rubber bullets and tear gas.

An Israeli army spokesperson said, “Two soldiers were injured by rocks hurled at them during a violent and illegal riot that erupted at the scene… Security forces responded with riot disposal means.” Palestinian sources said that around a dozen Palestinians were injured.

Yesterday’s violence comes amid simmering tension and a rise in the number of disturbances in the West Bank over the past few weeks. These have included several violent protests and attacks on Israeli civilian and military vehicles. On Monday evening, an Israeli bus carrying civilians was shot at south of Hebron, with no injuries reported.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned that “Hamas could take over the Palestinian Authority (PA),” which currently controls the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. He said that “it could happen after an [Israeli-Palestinian peace] agreement, it could happen before an agreement, like it happened in Gaza,” when Hamas violently ousted the PA in 2007 after Israel had unilaterally withdrawn from the Gaza Strip two years earlier.