WEST BANK/ OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
Dozens of settlers from a Jewish settlement where a Palestinian killed an Israeli youth last week rampaged through a neighboring West Bank Arab village on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of Jews headed to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem for their holy prayers.
At least five Palestinians were injured in violence that included confrontations between stone-throwing villagers and Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene after the settlers, from Bat Ayin entered neighboring Safa.
Bat Ayin, where some 1,000 Israelis live, is located near the Palestinian towns of Hebron and Bethlehem.
"A large number of settlers came at 7:30 in the morning and started to smash car windows and throw rocks at houses," said Abu al-Abed, a resident of Safa, where 300 Palestinians live.
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West Bank violence Israeli police show restraint while dealing with Jewish settlers who hurled rocks at Palestinians An Israeli military source said the violence started when Palestinians threw stones at Bat Ayin settlers praying on a nearby hill before the Jewish Passover holiday.
Safa residents said about 200 settlers, some of them carrying weapons, entered the village.
Soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets and also used tear gas during the clashes with Palestinian stone-throwers, villagers said. There were no reports of any injuries or arrests among the settlers.
Palestinian medics said they had been unable to reach the village because of the ongoing violence.
Last Thursday, a Palestinian man wielding an axe killed a 13-year-old youngster and wounded a seven-year-old boy in Bat Ayin. The attacker, who was not identified, fled. The injured boy is a son of one of three jailed settlers.
In 2002, three settlers from Bat Ayin were sentenced by an Israeli court to prison terms ranging from 12 to 15 years for trying to set off a bomb near a Palestinian girls' school in Arab East Jerusalem. |
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Once-every-28-years-prayers Jews gathered in front of the Wailing Wall for their once-every-28-years prayers In the meantime, tens of thousands of Jewish faithful poured before sunrise on Wednesday in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to bless the sun in a prayer that is said once every 28 years.
Dressed in white prayer shawls, people of all ages filled the plaza in front of the wall, Judaism's holiest site, and crowded on rooftops around the area to catch a glimpse of the sun rising over the Holy City.
As the faithful swayed back and forth in prayer, the area filled with the din of the Birkat Hakhama prayer.
The prayer is said as the sun comes up to mark what according to Jewish tradition is the sun's return to its position at the moment that the universe was created 5,769 years ago. It returns to the spot once every 28 years.
The prayer has special significance this year because it coincides with the start of the Passover holiday, one of Judaism's most important, at sundown on Wednesday.
The Wailing Wall, also called the Western Wall, sits below al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest place. |
