Gunman Kills Israeli Soldier in New West Bank Violence

A gunman killed an Israeli soldier Monday, and a prominent rabbi scattered young Palestinian stone-throwers with gunfire in the latest unrest between Jews and Arabs in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River.

It was the second killing of an Israeli in less than a week in the West Bank and the first of a Jewish soldier there in at least six months, Israeli government officials said.

Israeli army reservist Aharon Avidar, 29, was shot at close range with a .22-caliber pistol Monday as he prepared to admit a car to the customs house in El Bireh, a village about nine miles north of Jerusalem, the army said.

The assailant escaped, and the army imposed a six-hour curfew on El Bireh and neighboring Ramallah.

Last Thursday, Jewish settler David Pinhas, 44, who lived in a Tel Aviv suburb, died after being attacked with a Molotov cocktail firebomb as he headed toward the village of Qalqiliya.

About 15 miles south of El Bireh on Monday, a group of Palestinian youngsters at the Dahaisha refugee camp hurled stones at Rabbi Moshe Levinger, the head of the West Bank Jewish settlement movement.

Levinger, a founder of the ultranationalist Gush Emunim (Faith Bloc) movement, later told Israel radio: “Nothing special. They threw some stones. I shot into the air, according to the law, and they ran away.”

Levinger has staged a “park-in” on the Jerusalem-to-Hebron highway outside the camp since November to call attention to attacks by Palestinian residents against Israelis in the West Bank. Last Saturday, 14 Dahaisha residents were arrested by the army.