Security forces, Kusra residents clash as B'Tselem provide photographs of two of six vehicles vandalized by Jewish extremists.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFTorched cars in Kusra 370(photo credit: עבד אל-כרים א-סעדי, בצלם.)
Jewish extremists vandalized six cars in the Palestinian village of Kusra around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the B’Tselem NGO.Four of the vehicles were torched and two had their windows broken, said B’Tselem, which provided photographs of two of the vehicles.The IDF could not confirm the “price tag” attack because its forces could not safely enter the village to investigate the matter.But Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned both the “price tag” attack and the IDF demolition of electricity poles in the same village on Wednesday.A statement by his office said, that the “acts of sabotage by the occupation forces” as the “continuation of settler terrorism against our people” showed that Israel was deliberately targeting “the basic elements of the life of our people.”Early Thursday morning, a number of Palestinians who saw the Jewish extremists vandalize the cars, alerted the village. A mosque used its microphone system to call out a warning that extremists, believed to be settlers, were in the village. The vandals fled.When Israeli security forces arrived an hour later, villagers attacked them with stones, according to the IDF.Clashes broke out, and security forces used riot dispersal means, to clear the area.Security forces abandoned the area, attempting to return later in the morning, only to be met with more stone throwing. They again used riot dispersal means. Both times the IDF had to leave the village.This is the second time in two days that clashes have broken out between security forces and Palestinians in Kusra. Security forces arrived to help an IDF team take down some 10 or 12 electricity poles on Wednesday that, according to the IDF, had been illegally raised.
