The Israeli military has declared the Jewish section of the West Bank city
of Hebron a closed zone, banning non-residents, after three days of riots by
Israeli settlers and extremist backers against an order to evict Jewish
squatters from the Arab market.
The closure order, issued late on Monday by the area army commander, Major
General Yair Naveh, is in effect until January 22, according to a military
statement.
The scuffles could signal the opening salvo in a battle over the West Bank,
if Israel follows its pullout from the Gaza Strip last summer with further
withdrawals from territory that has far more biblical resonance.
Settler leaders and rabbis demanded that acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
back down and abandon his plan to dismantle the outpost in a Hebron market
and several other unauthorised settlements across the West Bank slated for
destruction in the coming weeks.
Olmert stood his ground, saying he ordered security forces to deal sternly
with the defiant settlers.
The fight over Hebron, where tradition says the biblical Jewish patriarchs
are buried, has special resonance for the settlers.
Many of the settlers here are extreme, religious nationalists and the city
has been the scene of harsh fighting during the five years of
Israel-Palestinian violence.
Hebron is the only West Bank city divided between Palestinian and Israeli
zones. Israeli forces control the centre of the city, where about 500
settlers live in several compounds. Settlers often clash with local
Palestinians.
Olmert spoke about Hebron after being named acting head of the centrist
Kadima Party in place of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive
stroke on January 4.
Sharon formed Kadima last year after rebellious lawmakers from his hard-line
Likud Party tried to torpedo his pullout from Gaza and four isolated West
Bank settlements. Many Israelis assumed Sharon planned further withdrawals,
if his party won the March 28 elections as polls indicate.