Palestinian Police Detain Suspect in Stabbing of Rabbi

Palestinian police said Saturday that they had arrested a Palestinian man who confessed to stabbing a 72-year-old rabbi in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier in the week.

Rabbi Nissim Gudai, a settler from Kiryat Arba, was shopping in the Arab vegetable market Wednesday when the assailant stabbed him in the back and fled. Gudai was seriously wounded.

“We arrested Iyad Saleh three days ago, and he has confessed that he stabbed the settler in the old city of Hebron,” said Tarik Zed, a Palestinian police officer in Hebron.

Zed did not elaborate on Saleh’s motives for the stabbing but said Saleh was still being interrogated.

A flash point of violence, Hebron is the only Arab West Bank city with Jews living in its center.

Hebron is the last of seven West Bank towns still to be handed over to the Palestinians. Israeli troops are to remain in those parts of the city where 400 Jewish settlers live among more than 100,000 Arabs.

Israel froze the Hebron redeployment after Islamic militant suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people in Israel over nine days in February and March.

Israel has promised to press ahead with the hand-over of Hebron to Palestinian self-rule, but indications Saturday suggested that Prime Minister Shimon Peres may delay the withdrawal until after the May 29 Israeli elections.