Hebron in West Bank Riven by New Clashes; 2 Arabs Hurt

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded at least two Palestinians in clashes in the divided West Bank city, witnesses said.

Dozens of protesters took to the streets after Palestinian shopkeepers found posters depicting the prophet Muhammad as a pig stamping on the Islamic holy book, the Koran, on about 20 storefronts near a Jewish settlement enclave. Islam and Judaism view pigs as unclean and ban the eating of pork.

Israeli police said a 25-year-old Jewish woman from Jerusalem had put up the posters.

“We arrested her after she threw a rock through the windshield of an Arab car in Hebron. Ten posters were found in her possession. She wanted to stir up trouble,” a police spokesman said.

Along a confrontation line dividing the Palestinian and Israeli-controlled parts of the city, rock-throwing Arab demonstrators shouted “the army of Muhammad will return.”

At least two Palestinians were hit by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by Israeli troops and one was taken to a hospital with a head wound, Arab witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she had no information about Palestinian wounded.

“During the disturbances, rocks were thrown at Israeli soldiers, but none were hurt. The security forces responded with anti-riot measures,” the spokeswoman said, without elaborating.

The violence, which subsided by the evening, began with stone-throwing between Palestinian teenagers on the street and Israeli students on the rooftop of their Jewish seminary.

A Jewish teenager stood on top of a decorative arch on the roof and waved an Israeli flag. Palestinians took aim, but their stones fell short.

Israel handed over most of Hebron to Palestinian self-rule in January but kept troops in about 20% of the city to guard about 450 Jewish settlers who live and study in fortified enclaves in the heart of the city of 100,000 Palestinians.

Despite the renewed violence Saturday, there were some signs that Israelis and Palestinian leaders were ready to talk to each other again after a three-month freeze in contacts.

Israel TV reported that Ariel Sharon, a hawk in Israel’s Cabinet, secretly met earlier in the month with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s advisor Mahmoud Abbas, and there were reports that a second Israeli minister, Natan Sharanksy, was about to do the same.

In their meeting June 16, Sharon and Abbas discussed a possible permanent peace agreement, Israel TV reported. The meeting was said to have taken place with the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.