Israeli Opens Fire in Hebron Market; 7 Arabs Wounded

HEBRON, Israeli-Occupied West Bank — An Israeli soldier in fatigues and a black skullcap sprayed Hebron’s Arab market with M-16 automatic rifle fire Wednesday morning, wounding seven Palestinians in what he said was an attempt to sabotage the hand-over of this West Bank city to Palestinian rule.

The attack threw negotiations for a pullback of Israeli troops from Hebron into disarray, but U.S. diplomats worked late into the night with Israeli and Palestinian officials to try to put a deal back on track.

Negotiators hoped to lay the groundwork for a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. The meeting had been expected to take place Wednesday but was derailed by the shooting.

Netanyahu telephoned Arafat after the attack and hastened to publicly condemn it as “a despicable crime.” He called for restraint in the streets and reiterated his commitment to withdrawing troops from most of Hebron, the only West Bank city where Israeli soldiers remain.

“The agreement that we have spoken about in recent months is essential in order to prevent violent acts from both sides of the sort we saw today,” Netanyahu said. “No crime and no violent act will stand in the way of our completing the work.”

The assault by a religious Jew trying to single-handedly halt the peace process recalled the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by student Yigal Amir in November 1995. For Palestinians in particular, the shooting also echoed the 1994 massacre of about 30 Muslims praying at Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs. They were slain by Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler in uniform.

The gunman in Wednesday’s attack, identified as Noam Friedman, was tackled by a fellow Israeli soldier and detained. The gunman later said he had opened fire on Arabs in an attempt to keep the city from being handed over to Palestinian rule. His age was variously reported as 19 and 22.

“Abraham bought the Cave of the Patriarchs for 400 shekels of silver, and nobody will give it back,” Friedman said to the cameras with a smile of conviction and triumphant wave of his fist. He was referring to the biblical Abraham, believed to have been buried in the cave along with wife Sarah and other patriarchs Isaac and Jacob.

The cave is also holy to Muslims, who call it the Ibrahim mosque.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat joined Netanyahu in calling for the two sides to complete and sign a U.S.-backed redeployment deal before further violence could erupt. The redeployment, originally scheduled for March 1996, was delayed after a series of suicide bombings in Israel by Muslim extremists opposed to the peace process.

“The shooting in Hebron means we must push forward in the peace process,” Erekat said.

He added, however, that Netanyahu should deduce from the attack that Israel cannot continue to pursue peace with the Palestinians and expansionist settlement policies at the same time. In Hebron, 450 settlers live among about 100,000 Palestinians.

“I hope this is an eye-opener for Netanyahu. He must decide either to be a partner in peace to us or a partner to the extremists. He can’t have it both ways,” Erekat said in a telephone interview.

Friedman, a yeshiva graduate and off-duty soldier from the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, was not based in Hebron but reportedly had checked out the city in previous days.

On Wednesday morning, he walked into a square next to the market and began firing his army-issue M-16 rifle at Palestinians in the fruit and vegetable stalls, witnesses said.

“He came into the market and just started shooting at us,” said Salman Mohammed abu Obeid, a 55-year-old laborer who was shot in both arms. “He was crouching. . . . We hid under the vegetable carts, but I was hit. I fell, and people carried me off.”

Abu Obeid lay in a hospital bed with his bloody shirt sleeves torn open and arms wrapped in bandages. Asked why he thought the soldier had opened fire, he winced in pain and said: “Revenge. They don’t want the Arabs. What else can it be?”

Friedman reportedly fired between 10 and 20 bullets in a matter of seconds before he was overpowered.

Hospital officials said seven people were treated for gunshot wounds and that two were in serious condition. Nine other people, including a 7-year-old boy, were treated for blows they reportedly received from soldiers trying to clear them from the scene after the shooting.

The army poured troops into the city after the shooting and put armored personnel carriers on surrounding hills to prevent mass riots such as those that followed the Goldstein massacre in 1994. Israel also imposed a brief curfew and worked closely with Palestinian security officials to calm tensions.

Youths burned tires and threw rocks at soldiers briefly after the shooting, but the streets quickly emptied.

Internal Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani revealed that Friedman had been hospitalized in recent years for mental health problems, raising questions as to why he had been allowed to serve in the military and carry a weapon. Friedman was a member of a logistics team rather than a combat unit.

Friedman’s former yeshiva teacher told Israeli radio that the soldier recently had sought his help to get released from army service.

“He suffered from problems. There were disturbances,” said Rabbi Motti Elon of the Chorev high school yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Friedman’s mother, Riva, read a statement to reporters expressing sorrow for the families of the victims and condemning her son’s attack. She did not address his medical history, saying only: “We educated our children to values of tolerance, preservation of human dignity and the sanctity of all human life, regardless of religion or nationality. . . . I do not know what happened to my son.”

Authorities said they found more than 200 rounds of M-16 ammunition during a police search of Friedman’s home. No letter or other explanation of his intentions was found.

After the shooting, Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natshe visited the wounded in the hospital. He urged the Palestinian negotiating team to renegotiate the Hebron agreement, which calls for turning about 80% of the city over to the Palestinians but leaves the area around the Jewish enclaves and the Cave of the Patriarchs under Israeli protection. About 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinians live in that area.

“We cannot leave 30,000 Palestinians in [the area under Jewish control]. They are at the mercy of Israeli soldiers and crazy settlers,” Natshe said. “If a Palestinian shoots a settler today, the Israeli government would say, ‘Full stop.’ Now we must reconsider. . . . Why must we pay for everything with our security?”

Representatives of the city’s Jewish settlers, on the other hand, read the opposite message. The settlers condemned the attack and said it showed that they are right to oppose an Israeli redeployment on any scale.

“If the army were not here, had it not intervened, there would have been a pogrom here against men, women and children,” said Rabbi Moshe Levinger. “We would have been annihilated.”

Most of the settlers are armed, and they will have military protection even after redeployment, but they say it will not be enough.

The settlers’ fears were met with threats by Islamic fundamentalists opposed to the peace process. Hours after the shooting, the militant Islamic group Hamas said Israel would pay the price for its “crimes” against Palestinians.

“The Zionists’ crimes will not pass without a price sooner or later. . . . And the comprehensive resistance to occupation will continue until occupation ends,” the group said in a leaflet.

The United States, meanwhile, condemned the shooting and vowed to continue mediating a Hebron settlement. President Clinton spoke with Arafat by telephone about the attack and the Hebron accord and urged the Palestinian leader to push on in the talks.

“We in the United States condemn this act in the strongest possible terms,” Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross said. “Those who use violence cannot be permitted to be the arbiters of the future.”