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| By Associated Press January 15, 2006 |
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Jewish settlers threw stones at Palestinian houses in the West Bank city of Hebron and tried to force their way into the town's market on Saturday before Israeli troops were called in to stop them, military and police spokesmen said.
On their way to the market, or casbah, settlers entered a Palestinian home to eject its inhabitants, but were removed by police, police said.
A soldier was lightly wounded in the eye in the stone-throwing incident, the military said. There were no injuries reported on the Palestinian side.
Channel 1 TV reported that some of the settlers were masked, and some threw paint and eggs as well as stones. Police and the military said they could not confirm the report.
Tensions have been high in the already volatile city since the government ordered eight settler families to evacuate a Palestinian market area they took over four years ago after Palestinian gunmen killed a 10-month-old Israeli baby. They have been given until Sunday to leave voluntarily and are to be expelled a month later if they disregard the evacuation orders, as they are expected to do.
About 500 settlers live in heavily guarded Jewish enclaves in the heart of Hebron, home to more than 160,000 Palestinians.
In the first incident, some 150 settlers in a Jewish enclave in Hebron threw stones at nearby Palestinian homes, the military said.
Later in the day, more than 400 settlers tried to make their way into Hebron's casbah and other areas that are off-limits to them, before security forces pushed them back, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. One settler was brought in for questioning after apparently trying to attack a high-ranking Israeli military officer, Rosenfeld said.
Separately, about a dozen settlers came to a Palestinian house and briefly ejected the family who lives there, the family said.
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