5 PALESTINIANS WOUNDED IN ISRAELI SOLDIER'S ATTACK.Byline: Dafna Linzer Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. An off-duty Israeli soldier determined to sabotage his country's troop withdrawal from Hebron opened fire on a crowded vegetable market Wednesday, wounding five people and touching off a stone-throwing protest by angry Palestinians. Nine Palestinian protesters were beaten by Israeli soldiers trying to keep the crowd at bay and stop it from erecting street blockades of burning tires. The army placed Hebron under curfew. The 22-year-old Israeli gunman, who recently was expelled from a Jewish seminary and had been advised to seek psychiatric help, was tackled by other soldiers. Israel TV reported he had been drafted into the army despite a psychiatrist's recommendation against it. Israeli radio stations reported that the Islamic militant group
The Militant Group was an early British Trotskyist group, formed in 1935 by Denzil Dean Harber, former leader of the Marxist Group, as an entrist group Hamas - which killed scores of Israelis in a spate of suicide bombings 10 months ago - said it would avenge the shooting. The attack came while U.S.-brokered talks on removing Israeli troops from 80 percent of Hebron were in their final stage. Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai Yitzhak Mordechai (Hebrew: יצחק מרדכי, born 22 November 1944) was an Israeli general, and later Minister of Defense and Minister of Transport. met late Wednesday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's deputy at the home of U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk Martin Indyk (born July 1 1951 in London, England) is an American diplomat and former United States ambassador to Israel. He grew up and was educated in Australia, gaining a BEcon from the University of Sydney in 1972 and a PhD in international relations from the Australian to resolve remaining differences. This city of jangled nerves - home to 130,000 Palestinians and 500 Jewish settlers - had been teetering toward violence for weeks, as a long-delayed deal painstakingly nears completion. An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Arafat could meet late Wednesday or today to try to finish a deal. U.S. envoy Dennis Ross Dennis B. Ross is an American author and political figure who served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton. called on both to double their efforts: ``Those who use violence cannot be permitted to be the arbiters of the future.'' Pvt. Noam Friedman, a former religious student who lived in the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, told police he wanted to scuttle the planned Israeli troop withdrawal and did not regret his actions. Outside the Hebron police station, he smiled, his round face framed by short-cropped hair under a black skullcap skull·cap n. See calvaria. skullcap, n Latin names: Scutellaria laterifolia, Scutellaria baicalensis; , and waved his fist in victory. ``Hebron always and forever,'' he declared. The shooting stirred memories of the 1994 Hebron mosque massacre, when settler Baruch Goldstein Baruch Kappel Goldstein (December 9 or December 12, 1956 – February 25, 1994, Hebrew: ברוך גולדשטיין opened fire on Muslim worshipers inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, sacred to Jews and Muslims, killing 29 Palestinians. Friedman told reporters he was ``completely normal,'' and wasn't sorry. Asked why he shot at innocent Palestinians, he said: ``They're not innocent. They hate the Jews.'' Army radio said police found 200 9mm bullets at Friedman's house Wednesday. Friedman grew up in a religious family in Maale Adumim. He attended a religious high school and began studying at a yeshiva yeshiva Academy of higher Talmudic learning. Through its biblical and legal exegesis and application of scripture, the yeshiva has defined and regulated Judaism for centuries. Traditionally, it is the setting for the training and ordination of rabbis. , or Jewish seminary, about three years ago. Friedman served in a logistics unit in Israel and was not assigned to duty in Hebron. A senior military commander said Friedman had completed guard duty Tuesday night at his base near Jerusalem, then boarded a bus to Hebron on Wednesday morning. About 9:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. Tuesday PST PST Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, see there ), Friedman walked into Gross Square in full army uniform, and stood near an Israeli army post, M16 assault rifle assault rifle Military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. in hand. Facing the Palestinian market just a few yards away, he squeezed off 10 to 15 rounds of ammunition. He wound up sitting in the street, still firing, before he was subdued sub·due tr.v. sub·dued, sub·du·ing, sub·dues 1. To conquer and subjugate; vanquish. See Synonyms at defeat. 2. To quiet or bring under control by physical force or persuasion; make tractable. 3. . ``I heard the shots and ran in his direction. He screamed as he fired. He stood in one place and fired,'' said an Israeli army officer, 2nd Lt. Avi Buskeila. It took about 10 seconds to disarm him. Buskeila told the Associated Press the gunman shouted, ``Don't shoot me '' after he was subdued. Shoppers scrambled for cover when the shootings began; an elderly man stumbled as he ran, a young boy fled past a vendor's cart. Another man, struck by a bullet, clutched his bloodied left arm. The shootings prompted fresh demands by the Palestinians that the settlers be disarmed and eventually expelled. Israeli troops were to have pulled out of Hebron nine months ago, but Israel, insisting on better security for the settlers, delayed redeployment re·de·ploy tr.v. re·de·ployed, re·de·ploy·ing, re·de·ploys 1. To move (military forces) from one combat zone to another. 2. . CAPTION(S): PHOTO (1) An Israeli soldier identified as Noam Friedman fires his r ifle at Palestinians in a Hebron market Wednesday. (2) Israeli troops escort Noam Friedman, center, after his shooting spree. (3) Palestinian women rush their children away from the center of Hebron. Associated Press |
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