Dozens of Arabs from the Arab village of Qusra, where one Arab was killed in self-defense last Thursday by an Israeli security escort during a lynch-mob attack on a Bar Mitzvah hike, on Monday repeated last week’s attack, throwing stones and rolling boulders at a group of rightwing Israelis who had come to see the area first-hand.
The Israeli group, composed of several dozen activists from the extra-parliamentary party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Might) was being led by former MK Michael Ben-Ari, together with attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir and activist Baruch Marzel, arrived on Monday morning for a tour of the area where some 25 Jewish children were forced to huddle in a cave for fear of a mob of Arab rioters who were throwing stones at them and at some point stole the weapon of one of the two grownups securing the children.
As the visit began, police barred Marzel, Ben Ari and Ben-Gvir from entering, but meanwhile some of the Israeli activists part managed to reach a few yards from the cave – at which point this week’s mob attack began, with heavy rocks thrown at the Israeli group and boulders rolled from uphill at them.
IDF forces began to repel the rioters with tear gas and stun grenades, and the Arabs claimed that one of them had been wounded by gunfire – although it has been speculated that he was injured by one of the rolling boulders.
The Judea and Samaria border rescue center reported that the injured person was evacuated by car to a hospital in Shechem. Members of Jewish Might criticized the army and the police for failing to arrest any of the rioters.