March 11, 2011
Israeli media says a Palestinian infiltrator stabbed to death a couple and three children in the settlement of Itamar.
The military says it is sweeping the area in search of the perpetrator and has set up checkpoints throughout the West Bank [AFP]
Five Israelis, who according to media reports were all members of the same family, have been killed in an overnight attack on a West Bank settlement.
Israeli army officials said on Saturday that a Palestinian got into the Itamar settlement near Nablus in the north of the West Bank and killed five people, but did not elaborate on who the victims were.
Israeli reports suggested that the victims, three children and their parents, had all been stabbed to death in their beds.
Three other children managed to escape and raise the alarm, according to the Israeli news site Ynet.
The army launched a search of the area to find the attacker or attackers, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
The military also said it was sweeping the area and had set up checkpoints throughout the West Bank. It has also instructed all residents to stay in their homes during the extensive sweeps.
Tense atmosphere
Tension between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the area has been extremely high in recent days.
On Monday, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinians after they clashed with Israeli settlers near Nablus.
Ten Palestinians and a Jewish settler were wounded during the violence, according to Palestinian medical sources and a spokesman for the settlers.
A week earlier, police clashed with settlers in the Havat Gilad outpost west of Nablus as officers moved in to remove a caravan, a tent and another half-built illegal structure there.
That prompted settlers to firebomb a house in Huwarra village, which saw two Palestinian children taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
They also smashed up shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron and settlers also cut down 500 olive tree saplings that had been planted on the site of a former settlement outpost.
The settlers routinely react when police and soldiers demolish structures in settlements or wildcat settlement outposts in what are known as "price tag" attacks, which often target Palestinians.
This violence against the local population is a direct response to what they consider "anti-settler" activity by the Israeli government.
If you talk to any Arab you’ll find that after the Israelis the people that are hated the most are the Palestinians. They are regarded about the same way that Europeans used to look at the Gypsies (and still do). They use the Palestinians as a stick to beat the Israelis with and a PR tool. There is no way that any arab country would allow the Palestinians permanent and equal status. If they had any sense they’d bury the hatchet with Israel and join with them because sure as shooting, if the Israelis are ever driven out the Palestinians would be next on the list.
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