JERUSALEM - Jewish settler groups called on Israel on Sunday
to raze the Palestinian village of Khallet Al Maiyya in the southern
West Bank where they say militants who killed four of their number are
hiding out. The Council for Settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip called on the government in a statement to set an example by
"razing the village" of 2,000 residents, where the council
said many houses had been built without authorisation from Israel.
It said such a move would put a stop to ambushes like that near
Hebron on Friday, which left four settlers dead, including a
nine-year-old boy, and "mark a turning point in the war against
terrorism." Israeli military sources said the gunmen responsible
for the ambush fled to the Palestinian village of Yatta. The army
imposed a curfew and searched Yatta house by house, discovering a large
stash of weapons, the same sources said.
Another settler from Hebron was also killed in a roadside shooting in
the area the same day. The attack was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, an armed wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which said it
was retaliating for an Israeli air strike on Monday which killed the
military leader of the Hamas and 14 other people. - AFP