Hebron Violence Rising as Settlers Await Eviction

A Jewish settler scuffles with an Israeli border police officer as she is arrested near a disputed...

A Jewish settler scuffles with an Israeli border police officer as she is arrested near a disputed house in the West Bank town of Hebron, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008. Tensions have been high in the divided West Bank city and unrest has taken place around a house where Jewish settlers have holed up in defiance of an Israeli Supreme Court eviction order. There have been clashes between Jewish settlers, Palestinians and Israeli security forces in recent days. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

(AP)

Escalating aggression by extremist Israeli youths holed up in a disputed house in the biblical city of Hebron approached the boiling point Wednesday as Israel's government vowed to evict them.

Israel ordered in 300 riot police to rein in the young settlers, who again hurled stones and debris at Palestinians living nearby and at Israeli soldiers guarding the four-story building that the settlers call the "House of Peace."

Teenagers prayed, played guitars and stood around aimlessly when they weren't throwing rocks and paint-filled balloons. Black stars of David daubed on nearby Muslim gravestones, smashed windows at a Palestinian house and a wall tagged with a spray-painted Hebrew word — "revenge" — were evidence of the increasing violence.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak scheduled a meeting with settler leaders Thursday morning to try to settle the dispute over the building's ownership, Barak's office said in a statement.

The building is a settler enclave in a city where some 500 Jews live under military guard among 170,000 Palestinians.

Settlers moved in without government authorization last year. They contend they bought the property from a Palestinian, who claims he had planned to sell them the building but changed his mind. Israel's Supreme Court ruled last month that the settlers should vacate the building until a lower court decides who the rightful owner is.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised that the court's order would be implemented. "Once the Supreme Court has ruled that a specific structure should be evacuated, it will be evacuated. I will not allow anyone to challenge Israeli democracy," he said.

But it remained unclear when, or if, the government would move against the building's occupants. The West Bank is dotted with around 100 unauthorized settler outposts that Israeli authorities have not touched.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said paramilitary border police, who are better trained for riot control, would replace soldiers in the neighborhood. Security officials estimated 300 border officers would be deployed.