Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday harshly criticized Israeli settlers who launched a revenge campaign in West Bank villages after a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli boy in the settlement of Yitzhar Saturday.
"The phenomenon of taking the law into one's hands and violent and brutal rioting is intolerable, and will receive an immediate response by the law enforcement authorities," Olmert was quoted by local daily Yedioth Ahronoth as saying at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"There will be no pogroms against non-Jewish residents in the State of Israel," the prime minister added.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "We will use all our might to protect Israelis wherever they are, while simultaneously making sure that all law authorities enforce the law."
Barak, also Labor chairman, spoke at a Labor ministers' meeting, during which criticism was voiced against law enforcement authorities, and particularly the State Prosecutor's Office, for failing to enforce the law in the territories, said Yedioth Ahronoth.
On Saturday, eight Palestinians were wounded when Israeli settlers attacked two villages near the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian medical sources said.
Earlier Israeli forces had stormed the villages of Madma and Assira after a Palestinian stabbed the Israeli boy in the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.
The nine-year-old resident of Yitzhar was taken to hospital and Israeli sources said his injury was light.
According to Palestinian witnesses, the Israeli forces stormed the two villages and told the residents they were looking for a Palestinian who stabbed the boy and burnt a house in the settlement.
During the Israeli army operation, tens of settlers, who live in Yitzhar, attacked the houses of Palestinian residents. The witnesses said the settlers were armed and some of them fired at the houses.
As a result of the shooting, eight Palestinians were wounded, most of them in their legs and hands, according to paramedics fromthe Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The Israeli army imposed curfew in the villages and announced the area a closed military zone.
Source: Xinhua
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