Jewish Settlers in Hebron Shoot Palestinian Men

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has released graphic video footage showing settlers fighting with Palestinians in Hebron and shooting two men at close range in the hours after a settler house was evacuated by police yesterday.

The film, recorded by a Palestinian resident in Hebron, shows settlers attacking his house, which was in a valley close to the three-storey building where dozens of settlers were evicted by Israeli riot police. In the hours after the eviction, Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron, throwing stones at police and Palestinians and setting fire to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes. Most of the violence took place between the evicted house and the nearby hardline Jewish settlement of Kirya Arba.

The footage shows a settler firing a handgun and injuring two Palestinians, Hosni Abu Se'ifan, 40, who was hit in the chest and is now in a stable condition in hospital, and his father, Abd al-Hai Abu Se'ifan, 65, who was hurt in the arm. Others from the family then overpower the gunman until armed Israeli security guards from the Kiryat Arba settlement arrive and shoot several rounds over the heads of the Palestinians. The Abu Se'ifan family have frequently been targeted by settlers in the past.

B'Tselem handed the video to Israeli police in Hebron last night and was "demanding that the assailant is immediately brought to justice and that the involvement of the security guard be investigated".

"Additionally, the security forces must investigate the failures that allowed settlers to riot throughout the afternoon and evening in Hebron's Palestinian neighborhoods," the rights group said.

Since early last year B'Tselem has given out more than 100 small video cameras to Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank to allow them to record human rights abuses, and particularly the increasingly violent clashes with settlers. The group says the video recordings encourage accountability and are frequently used as evidence to bring cases against soldiers and settlers who break the law.

There are around 470,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and their numbers are increasing every year, even though all settlements in the occupied territories are illegal under international law.

The settlers at the Hebron house claimed they had bought the building legally nearly two years ago from a Palestinian and said they had documents and videotape as proof. However, the Palestinian has since denied selling the building to the settlers and last month the Israeli supreme court said the house should be evacuated until the ownership dispute was settled. The 15 settler families were joined by dozens of supporters ahead of the eviction and the house quickly became their latest symbol of defiance against the Israeli government.