A day of violence in the West Bank

Kiryat Arba
Shortly before noon on Friday there was a car accident between an Israeli car and a Palestinian youth on Road 60, near Kiryat Arba. In the accident, the Palestinian youth was severely injured. Following the incident, Arabs gathered at the site and began to riot and attack police officers who arrived at the scene. Despite arrests and attempts to quiet the riots, the Arabs continued to exert violence on police officers, who began to shoot rubber bullets on the rioters, until the crowd eventually dispersed. Israeli security forces are concerned that the security situation is highly volatile leading up to Abu Mazen's speech at the UN this evening.


Har Gilo
1:30 p.m.: Dozens of Arabs are presently rioting by the separation fene near Har Gilo. Israel army forces are on the other side of the fence to prevent a breach. No injures have been reported (HNN Hebrew article)

Qalandia  checkpoint (near Ramallah)

2 p.m.: Masked Arabs are throwing rocks at Israeli security forces at the Qalandia security checkpoint.
4 p.m. Hundreds of Arabs demonstrated at Qalandia and threw stones at security forces, who responded with crowd control measures. 

Gilo 
2:10p.m.: Palestinian security forces report that dozens of Palestinian youths are assembling at a checkpoint in Gilo

Shilo
Dozens of Shilo area Jewish residents arrived at Eli Ayin mount to protest the recent evacuation of the settlement by the Israeli army. Simultaneously, nearly 1,000 Arabs from the village of Kutzra are marching towards the area with Palestinian flags, and the local Muazin (Muslim call to prayer) is calling for Arabs to confront the group of Jews. At present Israeli army forces are standing between the two groups, attempting to disperse the Jewish protestors. (HaKol HaYehudi Hebrew article)

Chalchul
A man in his 30's and a baby were killed after their vehicle overturned on Route 60 near Hebron on Friday afternoon. While police are claiming it was a traffic accident, initial reports from residents who arrved at the scene informed the press that a stone was thrown at the vehicle and caused the accident.


This is a summary of events until 4:45 p.m. Israel time. We will pick up again on Saturday night. Shabbat Shalom to all.